


Beyond the Pale

by zaffrin



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: AU, Academy Era AU, F/M, Gallifrey AU, Standalone fics, all within the same au, basically the master and the doctor in their youth, but an AU where there's no regeneration so it's Thirteen and Dhawan's Master, just go with it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 13:47:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 30,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22497082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zaffrin/pseuds/zaffrin
Summary: Silence. Theta holds her breath, praying to all the gods she doesn’t know she if she believes in for the professor not to pick her. 'Please don’t pick me, please don’t make me say that…' she silently begs. The professor’s eyes settle on her and her own go wide, hearts pounding -“Koschei.” He suddenly says, and when she snaps her head round to the boy sitting beside her, her eyes widen further when she sees his hand in the air.“Intercourse.” He answers calmly, and Theta jerks her gaze away, hearts going mad in her chest.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)
Comments: 314
Kudos: 496





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As explained in the tags, this is sort of a AU where the Doctor and the Master are in the Academy on Gallifrey as adolescents but in this version there's no regeneration so this is Thirteen and Dhawan's master. My knowledge on the show's history regarding this era is very limited so that's another reason I'm calling this an AU and just making up my own little world here based on some core ideas. 
> 
> It will make sense I promise! ;)

Theta’s leg bounces restlessly as she sits behind her desk in class, the words of their professor echoing forebodingly around the hall. 

“And who can tell me when the first looms capable of creating life were successfully completed?”

A show of hands raise around the room, and the professor points to someone. 

“491 kirronot.” The boy answers. 

“Correct. And consequently fifteen kirrors later what practice was outlawed?”

Nobody volunteers to answer that one, awkward shuffling going about the room. 

“You’re right,” the Professor says, looking around carefully, “to even speak of such things is an abomination. But I give you permission to answer the question, or I’ll have to pick on one of you to provide the answer.”

Silence. Theta holds her breath, praying to all the gods she doesn’t know she if she believes in for the professor not to pick her.  _ Please don’t pick me, please don’t make me say that… _ The professor’s eyes settle on her and her own go wide, hearts pounding -

“Koschei.” He suddenly says, and when she snaps her head round to the boy sitting beside her, her eyes widen further when she sees his hand in the air. 

“Intercourse.” He answers calmly, and Theta jerks her gaze away, hearts going mad in her chest. Even though she isn’t looking at him anymore she just  _ knows _ the corner of his mouth is twitching upwards in a poorly disguised smirk. Gods, how she hates him sometimes. 

“Exactly,” their professor nods. “Our species has risen above the need to engage in such… primal practices, and therefore to do so would be an insult to your race and ancestors. Gallifreyans are above all other races, and the Timelords you all hope to become situated above that still. We have evolved, and we must remain this way to protect our future and our past.”

Theta’s eyes drop to her paper in front of her, leg still bouncing as she feels both her hearts beat fast. She tries to rest her hand casually on her desk but knocks her pen and scrambles to catch it, missing and wincing as it clatters to the floor, bending to hastily retrieve it with burning cheeks. 

_ Contact. _

Her stomach leaps when she hears her friend nudge at her mind, and she bites down on the inside of her cheek, forcing herself not to turn her head to look at him. 

_ Contact, _ she answers -  _ what are you doing!? You know how risky it is to do this here - what if the professor overhears!? _

_ He won’t,  _ Koschei assures her,  _ but he may notice the way you’ve got guilty conscience written all over you if you don’t keep still for Rassilon’s sake! _

Realising he was right, Theta forces her leg to go still, hand clenching tight around her pen. 

_ Sorry,  _ she answers quickly,  _ it’s just -  _

_ I know.  _

Theta swallows.  _ How could you answer that question!?  _

_ He was going to pick on you if I didn’t,  _ Koschei replies, and she feels herself soften. _ You need to work on your poker face,  _ he adds, and Theta bites her lip, knowing he was right. 

_ I swear it feels like somebody’s gonna know just by looking at us, _ she speaks quietly into Koschei’s head as their professor drones on at the front of the classroom. 

_ They won’t. They can’t.  _

_ I know, but it still feels like it. I feel different to everyone else in this room. On this whole planet.  _

She feels him sigh in her mind.  _ Nobody’s going to know Theta. Not unless they see those marks I left on your chest. _

She can feel the smugness radiating off his words and her face flushes.

_ Koschei! _ She scolds him, tugging at the neck of her shirt. It was more than high enough to cover said marks but she can’t help the paranoia that accompanies his teasing. 

_ Keep still, _ he reminds her, and she huffs and breaks the contact, his words not helping the anxiousness in her gut. 

“With that covered, shall we move onto today’s practical lesson?” Their professor is saying when she tunes in again. “I believe we were working on perception filters last class…”

\--

“I can’t believe I’m the  _ only one  _ who couldn’t do it,” Theta grumbles as they file out of class.

“Nothing new there,” one of their classmates snipes and a small group of them snigger, until Koschei whirls round in the doorway, effectively blocking them from leaving.

“Something you want to say, Lanilo?”

The boy who’d made the remark frowns, standing up straighter.

“Koschei leave it,” Theta mutters, trying to disperse the situation before trouble can brew. “It’s fine - I don’t care.”

“I know you don’t,” he speaks to her whilst not taking his eyes of Lanilo, “but I do.”

“Yeah?” The other boy says, “what you gonna do?”

Koschei takes a step forwards. “Don’t test me,” he warns.

“Or what?”

“Do you really want to find out?”

“Koschei,” Theta repeats. 

“I think you should apologise,” he says to their peer, and just as the boy opens his mouth to argue he suddenly doubles over, clutching at his head. “ _ Apologise,”  _ Koschei growls. 

“Koschei! Stop it,” Theta insists. 

“Not until he apologises.”

“I’m sorry!” Lanilo gasps, still clutching at his head. 

“Not to me,” Koschei snaps. 

“I’m sorry… Theta,” he chokes out. 

“Boys!” Barks their professor suddenly from across the room, and Lanilo gasps, staggering backwards as Koschei turns away. 

“While your telepathic skills are impressive for your age, I’d prefer if you didn’t demonstrate them in my classroom,” the professor scolds. 

“Yes sir,” he answers politely. 

“Come on,” says Theta, casting a look between them before following Koschei from the room. 

“You didn’t need to do that,” she sighs as they walk through the halls. He flashes a grin at her. 

“Don’t pretend you didn’t like it a bit.”

“ _ Koschei _ ,” she warns quietly, reminding him that their classmates are still milling around in the halls. He clears his throat

“Hey wanna come to my room to study for a bit?” He says, a bit louder. “I can help you with the exercises from class.”

“Yeah okay,” she nods, turning up to the stairs and following Koschei to the third floor. Their hands brush as they hurry down the corridor together and she feels a tingle of anticipation go down her spine. Her fingers twitch, aching to slip her hand into his own and squeeze but she knows - it’s too much of a risk here where there’s other students milling about. 

As soon as the door to his room closes behind them she turns to face him, both of them smiling as her back hits the door with a thud and their lips meet in a passionate kiss. Theta winds her arms up around his neck and jumps up when he reaches down to scoop her up with his hands beneath her thighs, legs wrapping around his waist. 

It had been around six months since the first time they’d been together like this now, but every time sends a thrill through Theta’s entire being. He sent her hearts racing and heat pooling in her very core, every nerve ending set alight each time he kissed her, and every time they came together like this, Theta was more convinced that something that felt this  _ right _ couldn’t be wrong. 

She remembers that first time like it was yesterday, how being bundled up under the covers with him after she snuck into his room one night, conversing lazily and contentedly through a shared connection in their head suddenly hadn’t felt like enough. How Koschei had been on the exact same wavelength as her when she’d shuffled in closer to him sending quiet waves of yearning into his mind, how foreheads pressed together to share thoughts had turned into lips moving against each other to share air, limbs finding their way around each other, clothes pushed aside in favour of being closer still, fire bursting to life for the first time between her legs. Neither of them had known what they were doing, just that they shouldn’t be doing it, but it hadn’t mattered - they had found that their bodies told them what to do once they both gave in to them, murmuring breathless pleas not to stop against each other’s lips and inside their heads. 

Theta had seen stars inside her mind that first night, and she and Koschei had chased them together almost every night since, giving little care for what was right and what was wrong.

“Thinking about this all lesson,” she breathes when his lips move to her neck where he has her pinned against the door. 

“Is that why you couldn’t make the filter work? Too distracted?” He smiles against her skin and she huffs out a laugh.

“Probably.” She bites her lip as his kisses continue. “By that and the whole… lecture on the looms and - everything.”

Koschei pauses, before lifting his head to look carefully into her face. 

They look into each others eyes seriously for a moment, Theta’s going a mile a minute, and then Koschei’s face breaks into a grin. 

“If they only knew what they were missing huh?”

She laughs, all tension fading, and clutches tight to him as he spins them and staggers across the room to topple them both down onto his small bed. 

“Made me want you more,” she murmurs as his hand snakes beneath her shirt and cups one of her small breasts as his lips trail over her jawline. “All that talk about this being wrong…”

“Well,” he replies, and she can feel his grin into her neck, “You always were a rebel, weren’t you?”

“I prefer ‘independently minded’.”

“Mmm, I like it when you sound clever,” he growls and she grins. 

“I know you do.”

Theta curls her leg around Koschei’s waist, using the leverage to lift her hips, rubbing herself against him and making them both gasp as he lifts his head to look down at her. 

“Rassilon, you feel good,” he breathes against her mouth as they rock together. 

“I can feel better,” she hints in a purr, tugging at his shirt. 

“Wait - hold on,” he says, surprising her, holding still over her as they both lay panting. “I want - I want to try something,” he murmurs, looking a little nervous even as lust swirls in dark irises. “Do you trust me?”

She nods without hesitation. Koschei kisses her before pulling away, kneeling up on the bed to unfasten her trousers before tugging at them. She lifts her hips so he can remove them from her, doing the same when he hooks fingers under her underwear and slides that down her legs and off too. She bites her lip, anticipation swirling inside her and accumulating in a now familiar burn between her legs, breath coming out quick. But instead of leaning back down over her or removing his own clothes like she expects, Koschei nudges her legs apart and shuffles down on the bed so he is laying on his stomach between them, warm hands going to her hips. 

Her brow furrows as he looks down at her.    
“What are you -”

She gets her answer before she finishes her question, when he glances up into her eyes before leaning down and bringing his mouth right to where she was wet and aching. 

“Ah!” Theta gasps in surprise, eyes flying wide as she feels a hot tongue delve between her folds. “Umm… oh - okay,” she pants, dropping her head back to stare at the ceiling as pleasure flares between her thighs. She licks her lips, chest heaving, cheeks flaming as she thinks about the fact that Koschei’s mouth - his  _ tongue  _ was…

_ Contact.  _

_ Contact _ , she answers immediately. 

_ Are you alright?  _ He asks in her mind as he continues to lap at her, tongue probing and pressing and making her head go white with pleasure.  _ Is this okay? _

_ Yes, _ she answers as she nods,  _ yes yes yes yes yes.... _

She hears him chuckling in her head and feels it against her, the vibrations making her gasp, hips twitching. 

Her hands clench tight in his hair - when had she moved them there? And Theta realises she’s murmuring softly, his name spilling from her lips over and over as the pleasure builds inside her, his hands on her hips and his head moving between her legs.

She can feel herself reaching a climax fast - quicker than usual, the thrill of what was new building between her legs and promising to explode spectacularly, his name falling from her lips again, voice high as she gasps. 

_ Quiet,  _ he reminds her, and she nods frantically just before her orgasm crashes over her, and she screams his name through their connection instead, mouth open in a silent cry as she gasps and gasps, fingers clenched tight in his hair until she pushes at him, nerve endings raw.

Koschei crawls up over her, flopping down by her side and tugging her quivering form into his arms. She hums happily, slipping a bare leg over his hips and curling into him contentedly. 

“Not that I’m complaining,” she pants after a moment, her hearts still beating furiously as she twists her neck to look up at him, “but where did that come from!?”

He grins at her, propping his free arm behind his head, looking immensely pleased with himself. “Found a book in the library. Citing all the acts outlawed when the ban was passed.”

Theta’s eyebrows shoot up. “So that was an actual thing?”

“Apparently.” He turns his head to grin at her. “Like it?”

“Mmm,” she hums happily, turning her face to nuzzle into him as she chuckles. “Loved it.”

She slips her hand down and cups him through his trousers, squeezing gently as she presses up with her thigh. She’s surprised when Koschei reaches down and catches her hand, bringing it up to press his lips to the backs of her fingers. 

“Catch your breath first, love,” he murmurs. 

“Cheeky,” she huffs out a laugh. He slips his hand into her hair, leaning in to kiss her, lips moving softly against hers at first before she moans and arches into him, opening her mouth and encouraging him to deepen it, sucking needily on his tongue as her head swims in pleasure of the afterglow.

When they separate she drops her head to rest back on his shoulder, content to lay like this with him for the moment as he sifts his fingers absently through her hair. 

“Theta.” His voice is soft and hesitant when he breaks the peace after a while. 

“Hm?”

There’s a pause before he answers. “You know they’re wrong, don’t you,” he says, the question spoken more like a statement making her frown in confusion. “About… this,” he continues. “About us, and what we do.  _ They’re _ wrong. Not this.”

Understanding, Theta turns her head to look up at him, propping her chin on her hand resting on his chest.

“Yeah I know,” she answers. “It’s just… hard. To hear it. To know we see the world different to everyone else.”

“Only this world though. I bet it’s not like this everywhere out there.”

“No,” she agrees, and they lay quietly for a moment. “I want to see it,” she smiles wistfully.

“What?”

“The universe.”

Koschei smiles back. “We will.”

“We? I don’t remember inviting you along,” she teases, tongue between her teeth, squealing when he reaches out and tickles her in the ribs in retaliation.

She ends up on her back with Koschei cradled between her thighs and both of them smiling as they look into each other’s eyes when he ceases his attack.

“Now what was that?” He murmurs and she reaches up, brushing a lock of dark hair out of his eyes.

“I can’t think of anyone I’d rather see the universe with than you,” she replies honestly. 

“We’ll go wherever you want. Everywhere,” he vows, and she tilts her chin up to kiss him softly, sealing the promise. 

“Everywhere.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was an idea for an AU I’ve had for a while, I was gonna do a multi chap going through their childhood and teen years etc then on to them becoming the Doctor and the Master but I don’t have a solid enough idea for a plot soo... may just continue this universe as a series of oneshots if people are interested?
> 
> Please let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

Pen between her teeth as she shuffles through papers of scrawled notes and flicks through pages of an old book with the other, Theta is emersed in her own little world when a hand touches her shoulder and makes her jump. 

“Koschei!” She breathes, when her friend plops down into the seat next to her at the table she’s commandeered in the academy library. “What you sneaking up on me for?”

“I wasn’t,” he chuckles. “Your senses are  _ awful.”  _

“Yeah, yeah,” she rolls her eyes with a huff, “I was busy okay.”

“Is that your paper?” Koschei says with surprise in his voice, as he reaches out to sift through her scattered writings. “Wow, you’ve done loads - I was worried you wouldn’t be finished on time.”

“Uhh…” She gives him a guilty look.

“What?”

“Okay, I  _ was _ going to start the paper, but then I found this book on how the time rotar inside Tardises is made and it’s  _ so  _ fascinating I had to look into it and make some notes - and did you know that it takes almost an entire rotation of the planet for the rota to fully form? Of course that doesn’t mean that it can’t be manufactured to make -”

“Theta,” Koschei sighs, cutting off her rambling in exasperation. “The paper is due tomorrow!”

She slumps, looking down at the table. “I know, I know. But it’s so  _ boring!  _ Why can’t we learn about useful things? The universe is so fascinating and we’re stuck studying ancient laws made up by some old blokes in stupid hats.”

She hears a tut from over on another table and pulls a guilty face, lowering her voice. “It’s ridiculous.”

“It’s important,” Koschei frowns, “You’ll never pass your exams if you don’t learn these things.”

She sighs, tossing her pen down to the table and sitting back in her chair, arms folded as he shakes his head at her, reaching out to close the book and tidy all her notes into a pile.

“What’s this?” He picks up a diagram she’d scrawled on a piece of paper.

“Oh just - a redesign of part of the internal systems in the rotor. If you replaced this part with one of these,” she taps at it, “flight speed should be improved by about three and a half percent - which doesn’t sound like much but when you think if one timelord spends say a thousand years travelling in one of these things and every trip they save point three of a second, that’s gonna add up over time! Think of all the extra things you could do with that saved time! What? Why are you frowning at me? Were my calculations wrong?” She plucks the paper out of his hands to frown at it. 

“No!” Koschei snaps, surprising her when he snatches it back. “Your calculations were perfect - look! If you put this much effort into your schoolwork you’d be top of the year by now! Instead you waste time and waste your energy working on ridiculous theories for things you’re likely never even going to get near in the next millenium if you don’t pull yourself together!”

He slams the piece of paper back down onto the desk loud enough for a few students around them to glance over at him, muttering disapprovingly.

Theta stares at him with a frown. “Why are you getting so annoyed?” She says. 

He huffs, shoving a hand through his hair. “It just frustrates me. You’re one of the smartest students in our year - in the whole damn academy and I hate that nobody knows it except me.” 

She shuffles awkwardly in her chair. “I’m just… not very into this whole institutionalised education thing - you know that.”

Koschei looks at her with a sigh. “I do. I just wish you’d let other people see how brilliant you are.”

Smiling at the compliment, she shuffles a little closer to him in her chair, letting her thigh brush against his; a substitute for the way she wishes she could push her hands into his hair and kiss him in that moment. 

“ _ Koschei _ ,” she whispers a warning when she feels his hand slip onto her thigh beneath the table and squeeze. He takes it away, cheeks flushing in a way that told her the motion had been subconscious, and she feels a little pleased thrill shoot through her at it, even as they both glance quickly around to make sure nobody had seen.

Theta clears her throat, ignoring her warm cheeks. “Fine,” she says, “I’ll write the damn paper. Will you help me?”

Koschei sighs, picking up a pen. “Always do, don’t I?”

-

It’s gone midnight by the time they’re both done with their schoolwork (in hindsight she  _ really _ shouldn’t have left the paper until the last day), the last ones to quietly leave the darkened library, and needing to be up for classes in just a few hours they decide to forgo going to bed at all in favour of heading out to lay outside in the cool night air, side by side on the grass as they gaze up at the stars. 

“And that one,” Theta says softly, pointing above their heads.

“That one in the middle?”

“No, that one,” she takes Koschei’s hand and moves his pointing finger over to the left a bit, one eye closed as she presses her cheek to his so they are looking at the same space. “There’s three and then the little bright one over on it’s own see?”

“Oh yeah, I see it. What’s that one called?”

“I’m not sure,” she scrunches her face, thinking. “Need to check my chart.” 

He chuckles, turning his hand to link it with her own, dropping them back down to rest over his stomach where they lay on their backs on red grass.

“So,” he says, “visiting all those should keep us busy for a couple of decades at least.”

Theta smiles. “Then there’s whole other galaxies to see.”

“I can’t wait,” he smiles back, squeezing her hand.

After a moment she sighs. “I wish we could just go now. Just… leave all this and take off.” 

“Hmm,” he hums indulgently, “And how do you propose we do that my dear?”

She shrugs. “Nick a Tardis?”

He snorts, but turns his head on the grass to look at her when she doesn’t share his laughter. “You’re not serious?”

Another shrug. “It’s crossed my mind.”

He stares at her. “You don’t even know how to fly one.”

“I could learn,” she protests indignantly. “Can’t be that hard. Plus I found a book in my room that explains most of the basics. Okay I brought the book to my room, I found it outside.”

“You stole the book didn’t you?” 

“Yes, I took it from the library,” she huffs, “Anyway not the point -”

“Kind of  _ a _ point.”

“It’s so easy!” She enthuses, rolling onto her side so she can look at him better as she speaks, eyes bright. “Every Tardis has slightly different systems and controls but what each of them do is intuitive once you’re tuned into your machine, and there’s a monitor which displays all the information and a lever you can press down when you -”

“Okay, okay,” Koschei laughs, cutting her off. “You’ve made your point, you’re very clever.”

She grins at him. 

“We’re not going to go stealing any tardises Theta, it’s  _ insane _ .”

She huffs, rolling her eyes as she flops back down onto her back. “Where’s your sense of adventure? Think how brilliant it would be, us, up there,” she nods her chin up at the stars. “Exploring the universe together every day…” she turns her head, nuzzling into his neck and dropping her voice, “exploring each other every night…”

She feels Koschei’s pulses speed up in response and hides a smile in his neck. He clears his throat. 

“As…  _ tempting _ as that sounds -“

“Mmm?”

“You know its crazy. Especially since neither of us have even lived a century yet.”

She groans. “I can’t live another three hundred years  _ here _ . I can’t. Not when there’s so many places we could be going.”

Koschei squeezes her hand, bringing it up to press his lips to the backs of her fingers. “Patience, my dear,” he says quietly. “I’ll take you to see every star you wish some day.”

She turns her head to grin at him. “Maybe I’ll take you.”

He laughs. “Fine. You can take me then.”

“We’ll travel for two thousand years,” she smiles wistfully up at the sky.

“Don’t you think you might be bored of travelling by then?” He teases and she grins, squeezing his hand. 

“Never if I’m with you. She turns her head to grin at him. “Maybe you’ll get bored of me.”

He snorts. “You keep me on my toes far too much for that to happen.”

“Do I?” She says, brow furrowed. “I dunno what you mean by that.”

“Says the person I’ve just had to talk out of stealing a Tardis and running away from Gallifrey.”

“I was only saying it would be  _ fun _ ,” she rolls her eyes. 

“And didn’t I have to rescue you from the school pond just this morning?”

She huffs. “I was saving that bird! It wasn’t even deep, you’re so dramatic.”

“No, but if any of the professors had found you wading in it you’d have been in serious trouble!”

“Well they didn’t.”

“Yeah, thanks to me! My trousers are gonna smell like pond water for a week.”

“Gave me an excuse to take them off you though,” she turns her face to purr into his ear with a grin and he elbows her, even as she sees the corners of his own lips quick upwards. 

“That was why you did it wasn’t it?” He teases, “just wanted to get me out of my clothes.”

She grins, waggling her eyebrows at him when he turns his head to look at her. “Like you didn’t enjoy it.”

“I always enjoy it,” he growls back playfully, turning onto his side and leaning in to kiss her. 

Theta slips a hand up into his hair and they get a little lost in each other, and by the time they seperate for air Koschei has rolled over to cover her body with his own, pressing their joined hands to the grass beside her head. 

“We shouldn’t,” she pants against his lips, “out here.”

“There’s nobody around,” he replies. 

His dark eyes look black in the night, the stars glimmering behind his head and Theta wishes she could spend every night like this; with him beneath the stars. 

“You can,” he murmurs and her eyes widen. 

“How did you -?”

“Your thoughts are loud,” he smiles. “And you still need to work on your barriers.”

She frowns. “Did you look inside my head?”

“No!” He quickly assures her as she starts to push at him, cupping a hand to her face. “I would never without asking, you know that Theta. You’re literally projecting them out. I probably just caught that one because we’re touching.”

“Oh.” She relaxes back in the grass, letting out a huff. “I’m so bad at this. I don’t think I’m meant to be a timelord.”

“Of course you are,” he chuckles, bumping his nose against her own. 

“I’m not. I’m useless at everything. I’d be failing all my classes by now if it wasn’t for you.”

“That’s only because you don’t study enough,” he sighs. 

“But I hate studying! That’s what I mean - I hate all of this!” She’s pushing him off her, sitting up as she works herself up into a bit of a steam. “I hate studying and I hate this academy and I hate this planet and it’s stupid laws and rules and I  _ hate  _ that we have to sneak around and lie and pretend that you haven’t been inside me because everyone thinks its wrong and depraved and it’s  _ not _ , it’s not wrong, and I just -”

Koschei cuts off her rant mid-sentence by grabbing her face in his hands and kissing her deeply, toppling her back down to the grass and stroking his tongue against her own until she is relaxed and pliant against him, the spinning thoughts in her head settling and and the burning in her chest easing to be replaced with a warmth as the rhythm of her hearts sync with his own. 

“I know,” is all he says when he pulls away, stroking his thumbs over her cheeks. “We won’t be here forever.”

She sighs, nodding resignedly. 

“Can you just kiss me again?” She murmurs, tilting her chin up, longing for that dulling of thoughts and senses that always comes with his lips pressed against her own. 

He acquiesces, leaning in and pressing his lips to hers, kissing her softly for a moment before she opens her mouth with a needy little whine, and he copies, tongue pressing forward to stroke against hers, his weight braced half over her, forearms beside her shoulders on the grass and one leg slipping between hers. 

Her small hand snakes down between them, squeezing him through his trousers and smiling into the kiss as he gives a grunt. She slips her hand up and pushes it down under the waistband inside his trousers, wriggling it downwards until her fingers can stroke over his silken flesh, feeling him harden under her touch. 

“Theta,” he hisses, breaking the kiss to press his forehead to hers, breath coming out in stutters as she caresses him, brow furrowing. “Don’t - don’t start something we can’t finish out here.”

She smiles up at him, tongue between her teeth as she pushes her hand down further so she can wrap it around his length and gently squeeze. “Who says we can’t?” She breathes back hotly. 

He chokes a bit, hips rutting forward into her touch. “You seriously want to -!?”   
“Well - maybe not  _ that _ , exactly,” she agrees mournfully, catching her bottom lip quickly between her teeth, “But I can finish  _ you _ at least…” She squeezes him again suggestively, hand more purposeful as she starts to stroke him rhythmically now, enjoying the way he drops his head to her shoulder and exhales shakily by her ear.

“Rassilon, you’ll be the death of me,” he groans hoarsely, and Theta smirks, pleased with the way his breath quickens with every stroke of her hand.

“I love this,” she whispers hotly to him, knowing how her voice always helped him over the edge quicker. “Love making you come undone like this… love the way you feel in my hand…”

“Ungh - Theta,” he groans, gasping by her ear. 

“Love thinking of this inside me,” she continues in a soft coo into his ear as she squeezes him, “feels so good, you always feel so good… look at me,” she whispers, and Koschei lifts his head from her neck to look down into her eyes.

_ Contact _ , she nudges in his mind. 

“ _ Contact,”  _ he breathes aloud and into her head, eyes sliding closed as he presses his forehead to hers and lets her see how incredible she’s making him feel. 

Theta loses herself in him as she works him with her hand, lolling inside his head to share his pleasure, listening to the quick  _ thud-thud thud-thud  _ of his hearts, breathing heavily in time with him, sharing the air between their mouths -

“What the -“

Hearts plummeting, their minds are ripped apart, making both of them gasp at the sudden sharp twinge of pain as they drop out of the connection in shock, Theta yanking her hand out of Koschei’s trousers as they both scramble sit bolt upright on the grass to face their intruder, standing across from them apparently just having emerged from the trees.

“Ton!” Koschei exclaims, shoving a hand through his hair as they gape at their classmate, “Wha - what are you doing here?”

“Taking a walk before class to clear my thoughts - I do this every morning what… what are  _ you two  _ doing out here? What were you doing? Just now?”

Theta looks over to Koschei in a panic, hearts pounding in her chest. “Uhh-“

“Same,” Koschei says, grabbing the coat they’d been lying on and dragging it casually over his lap. “We were just out to clear our heads before classes start, weren’t we?”

Theta nods. “Uh huh. Yep.”

Ton looks between them with a confused frown. “But why were you -“ he gestures to them and the ground.

“Why not?” Says Theta, smile frozen on her face and Koschei elbows her subtly. 

He clears his throat “I was just.. - helping her with school work.”

“School work? Didn’t look much like school work,” Ton frowns and Koschei glances at Theta before he looks back at him and pastes on a breezy smile. 

“She’s having trouble with opening a telepathic connection. We were using physical contact to make it easier.”

“...Oh.” Ton says. “Oh I see. Makes sense,” the other boy nods. “Working?”

“Mhm, Yep,” Theta nods quickly. “ _ Definitely  _ working.”

She hears Koschei swallows hard and bites her cheek as a snort threatens to burst out. 

He clears his throat. “Actually got a bit lost in it, you know how it is, totally lost track of time - we should be going really. Need to get ready for class.”

“Yes,” Theta agrees, jumping up to her feet after him, stepping neatly in front of him.

“We’ll see you later?” She offers Ton who nods, giving them a wave before they turn and hurry off. 

They head quickly back through the trees and towards the school building, and as soon as they round the corner and are safely out of earshot they burst out laughing, Theta clutching at Koschei’s arm and turning her face into his shoulder as she giggles.

“I can’t believe he bought that,” she says. 

“Well of course he did, it’s not like what we were really doing was going to jump to mind,” he grins, arm around her small shoulders as he turns his head to grin into her hair. 

“Mmm,” she smirks, “speaking of…”

She pushes him, and they collapse against the wall together, her hands going up into his hair as she presses her lips to his in a deep kiss filled with adrenaline. 

“My room,” he gasps, pushing her away after a moment, eyes nearly black as they both stare at each other, panting. 

“Mine’s closer.”

“Yours then.”

Theta grins, slipping her hand into his and tugging him with her as they race to the door and hurry up darkened staircases towards the dorms.

They reach the first landing space, where the old building has a little window nestled to overlook the grounds, the pink dawn light just beginning to shine though, and Theta tugs on Koschei’s hand and presses him to the wall there, adrenaline still pumping through her veins and making her reckless, insides fizzing with the need to burn it off. He gasps when she slips her hand between their bodies to palm at him, feeling the weight of him through his trousers hot and heavy in her hand, moaning softly into his neck as she nuzzles into him. 

“Need you so much,” she whispers.

“Theta,” he hisses, head thumping back against the wall “ _ Rassilon -  _ not here -“

“You feel so good…”

“Theta…” he bucks his hips into her hand, one of his own clutching tight to her hip, tugging her closer. “Theta,” he’s saying, “Theta -  _ Theta!”  _ He’s pushing at her, and suddenly she registers the sound of footsteps descending the stairs and she leaps backwards away from him, standing with a pounding heart as one of their professors comes into view walking down towards them.

“Oh,” he says, apparently surprised to see them about. “What are you two doing out at this hour?”

“We were studying sir,” Koschei replies evenly, and Theta has to be impressed at how put together he is when not ten seconds ago her hand had been -

Their professor raises an eyebrow. “All night?”

“Yes.”

He looks dubious, and opens his mouth to interrogate them further when Theta quickly speaks up.

“It was my fault,” she blurts out, “left my paper til the last minute, Koschei was helping me get it done.” That part was true, at least. 

His ancient eyes fix her with a disapproving look.

“Theta Sigma.” He states, like the name alone is a disappointment. “Why am I not surprised?”

She shuffles, looking down at her feet. 

“And you,” he directs his attention to Koschei, “you’d do better to focus on your own studies than letting yourself get… distracted by your peer’s.”

What he means is ‘ _ dragged down’  _ and they all know it. Theta doesn’t really care, ready to brush the comment off but Koschei quickly speaks up.

“I think my grades suggest that I’m not finding it any distraction sir,” he says, tone polite but words pointed. Their professor narrows his eyes at him, clearly annoyed but unable to contradict his point.

“Suit yourself,” he says after a moment. “I hope you appreciate having such a good friend Theta.”

“Oh yes I do. I especially appreciated him  _ very  _ much tonight,” she says, and Koschei chokes next to her, quickly disguising it with a cough. She bites the inside of her cheek against a grin.

Their professor looks between them with narrowed eyes for a beat. 

“Well you’d better both go and get ready for classes or you’ll be late.” He finally says and they both nod and offer ‘yes sir’s, ducking their heads to hurry off.

“Tuck that shirt in,” he snaps after Koschei. 

“Yes sir.”

Koschei is stuffing the shirt Theta had pulled out back into his trousers as they hurry up the stairs and out into the dorm room corridor and she can’t contain her giggles as soon as the door closes behind them.

“Twice!” Koschei hisses, grabbing her arm and hurrying her towards their rooms. “We were just nearly caught together  _ twice!” _

“I know! Lucky right?” She whispers back. 

“Lucky is not exactly the word I’d use,” he hisses and she flashes him a grin. 

They reach her room first, and Theta stops with him, glancing quickly around before she leans in and presses a quick kiss to his cheek.

“See you in class,” she says, turning to dart inside.

“Where are you going?”

She blinks at him on the threshold, confused. “To… get ready? Look it’s nearly morning.” 

“Isn’t there something you need to  _ finish  _ doing first?” He says pointedly, and she glances down, catching on.

“Hmmm... no don’t think so,” she teases.

“Theta,” he growls, snagging her hand and yanking her into her own room with him as she giggles delightedly.

They get the door closed behind them and she gets him pressed back against it, sinking to her knees as she hastily undoes his trousers and makes to tug them down as he threads his hands in her hair and - 

The school bell sounds out, shrill and loud in the corridor.

“ _ No,”  _ he groans, dropping his head back against the door with a thunk as Theta regretfully rebuttons his trousers, wincing sympathetically and getting back to her feet. 

“Later,” She promises.

“I can’t go to class like this!”

“Well what are we supposed to do, miss class?”

They look at each other for a suspended moment, listening to the sound of the other students’ doors opening and closing and chatter in the hallway as they all shuffle to lessons.

Her hands dive into his hair at the same time as he grabs her around the waist, and then they are stumbling over to her small together, muttering breathlessly to each other in between kisses.

“It’s just one class,” she says.

“They probably won’t even notice,” Koschei agrees.

“Can make it up later…”

“Or catch the end of the lesson -“

“Just nip in to hand in our papers.”

She lands on her back, Koschei hovering over her, eyes as black as they had been under the stars as he glances hungrily at her lips. “I wasn’t going to make it through the lesson anyway,” he says, and she laughs as he leans in to kiss her again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes this was absolutely pointless but I'm having a lot of fun with these two so I hope some of you enjoyed it anyway! Looks like this little series is going to be continued, I am already attached to my baby Thoschei 😅
> 
> Please let me know if you liked this, and if you have any ideas or prompts for this universe please feel free to send them!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I'm uploading another chapter the day after the last one mind your business

The red grass is cool beneath Theta’s bare feet as she races through it, a welcome contrast to the hot suns beating down on the back of her neck, blonde hair flying out behind her and laughter bursting from her as she hears her pursuer gain on her. 

“No!” She yelps, feeling fingers clutch at the back of her coat and trying to dart away but it’s too late; arms reach out and grab her around the waist, knocking her off balance.

“Gotcha!” Koschei whoops in triumph as Theta shrieks, both of them tumbling to the grass in a tangle of limbs and laughter.

“Get off me!” She giggles, shoving at him playfully.

“No I don’t think I will,” Koschei grins, grabbing her flailing arms and rolling them so she’s fully pinned beneath him on the grass.

“ _ Koschei, _ you’re heavy!”

Her words are in jest, but Theta realises that he  _ is  _ heavy now he’s settled over her like this, his body leaner and stronger than it had been just this time last rotation, and shoulders definitely broader than they were too, leaving her feeling suddenly tiny trapped under his form. She goes still beneath him, bottom lip caught between her teeth as she contemplates being pinned beneath him like this.

She doesn’t hate it.

While they’d been of a similar height most of their lives, Koschei had had something of a growth spurt recently leaving him a good half a head taller than her, his voice growing deeper and stubble starting to appear on his chin that she reveled in teasing him over. Theta herself was still lean and lanky but her own body was changing subtly too, her shirts becoming a little tighter round the chest than they had been before and that particular area growing sensitive. Koschei settles fully over her, shifting to get a better grip on her wrists and the hard plane of his own chest brushes hers as he does so and a soft gasp escapes her lips.

“Ow!” She covers it when Koschei looks down at her in surprise, her cheeks flushing at the unintentional reaction, quickly insulting him to cover up her fluster. “How many cakes have you been eating?”

“Hey,” he protests, chuckling, but he shifts over her again, moving his legs to brace his weight on the ground instead of her. One of his knees lands beside her thighs and the other slips between her legs and Theta squirms beneath him, wrestling with the bizarre urge to hook her leg over his hip and tug him closer. 

She gives herself a little shake and huffs. 

“You gonna let me up?”

“Hmm, nope,” he grins, “Don’t think I will.”

“We just gonna lie here all day then?”

He looks down at her for a moment, impish grin not letting her know what he was thinking, and just as she’s about to open her mouth to ask, he speaks again. 

“I want to try something.”

Theta’s brow furrows curiously. “What?”

He licks his lips, looks suddenly a little nervous. “Trust me?”

“Yes,” she answers immediately, “Of course I do but what -” Her words die on her lips, a gasp replacing them when Koschei releases one of her wrists and presses his fingertips to the side of her head and she suddenly feels the inside of her whole mind flood with a warmth, something strange and unfamiliar and definitely not her own thoughts just nudging at the edges of her consciousness. Her eyes fly wide as she stares up at her friend, his own eyes closed and brow furrowed in intense concentration. 

“Is - is that - are you -” She stammers out, and he opens his eyes to look down at her, nodding. 

“Can you feel me?”

She gasps again, closing her eyes as she connects the pressure in her head with  _ him _ . It did feel like him, now she’s thinking about it - she doesn’t know  _ how _ exactly that the warmth in her mind was distinctly Koschei, but it was. 

They had studied telepathy since they were young children, of course, but Gallifreyans were not supposed to attempt to connect with each other until they had a full grasp of the tangibility of their own minds. It was dangerous, they were taught, and a failed attempt was rumored to cause unbearable headaches lasting more than a moon. 

There is no pain inside Theta’s head as she hears Koschei whisper the word ‘ _ Contact’.  _ \- No, not whisper - his lips haven’t moved, and she realises the word was spoken inside her mind. 

_ Contact _ , she answers him, snapping open her eyes and saying it out loud when he doesn’t respond. 

“Contact.”

Koschei opens his own eyes to look down at her. “I can’t hear you,” he says, and she frowns. 

“Why not? I can hear you?”  _ Contact _ , she presses again, a pain starting to build behind her eyes, and Koschei gasps suddenly and pulls back, the warmth leaving her head as his hand moves from her temple. 

He rolls quickly off her, and both of them lay side by side, panting at the exertion. Theta’s limbs tremble a little with the sudden emptiness of him leaving her mind. 

“Are you alright?” He turns his head to look at her worriedly. 

She nods, swallowing. “I’m fine.”

“I hurt you,” he says, “I didn’t mean -”

“It’s fine,” she quickly shakes her head, “It was only a second - wait - you could feel that?”

“Yes,” he replies, “I could feel everything. Couldn’t you?”

She frowns, trying to wrap her head around what she’d just experienced. “I’m not sure. It was… weird.” She bites her lip, turning her head to look at him. “Good weird, though. Can we try again?”

She reaches out eagerly with her hand but Koschei catches it quickly in his own, shaking his head. 

“We better not. I don’t want to hurt you -”

“I’m fine -”

“- You’re probably not ready.”

Theta pauses at his words, and then sits up abruptly, snatching her hand from his. 

“What, you don’t think I can do it?” She’s frowning at him, and he sits up quickly too. 

“That’s not what I said -”

“Yes it is,” she scowls. 

“Look, I shouldn’t be able to connect with anyone yet either -”

“Oh what, but you’re so much better than all the rest of us?”

“No,” he growls, “That’s not what I’m saying.”

“Yes it is,” she snaps. “That’s always what you’ve thought. You’re so arrogant.” Theta gets to her feet, brushing grass off herself angrily before she whirls to storm away. 

He calls out to her but she ignores him, suddenly furious as she hurries to get away from her friend. How dare he? How dare he think he’s better than her when he sprung that on her and didn’t give her a second to sort out her thoughts. But that was Koschei, always convinced he was the best at everything - he always had been, ever since they were little and he used to race her to school every morning and beat her each time. Once Theta had nearly had him, and he’d stuck his leg out just before the gates and sent her flying to the ground. She’d gotten leaves in her hair and mud and a scrape on her knees and she’d cried. Her and Koschei hadn’t spoken for a week. 

They shouldn’t be messing around with telepathy unsupervised anyway, let alone forming an actual connection - it was dangerous, everyone knew that, they were far too young to be attempting such a thing -

_ Contact _ . 

She almost trips and falls again right then, stopping dead and freezing where she stands. 

_ I know you can hear me, _ he says, as Theta’s hearts speed up, that warm feeling wrapping around her thoughts again.  _ The fact that I can speak to you means that we’ve already opened a connection. Both of us - one timelord can’t get inside another timelord’s mind without both participating.  _

“We’re not timelords,” Theta mutters, but he doesn’t seem to hear her reply. 

_ I wanted to try because I felt like I could feel it, I have for a while - like I could sense your mind right there and it would be so easy to reach out - and it was. It’s not because  _ I’m _ better at anything Theta. This is because of both of us. The connection was already opening between us.  _

Slowly, her hearts still beating furiously, Theta turns to face him across the field. 

They look at each other for a moment, Theta’s thoughts going a mile a minute, head spinning with feelings - exhilaration, excitement - a little fear. She feels him drop out of her mind and frowns, head feeling light and empty and cold again. Her feet are carrying her towards him before she even realises it, mouth open ready to demand whether he thought she couldn’t handle it again - but when she gets closer she sees him bend over, hands on his knees and she breaks into a run. By the time she’s reached him he’s fallen into the grass and kneels there, head in his hands. 

“Koschei!?” She gasps, dropping down in front of him and trying to get him to look at her. “What’s wrong!?”

“Fine,” he says through gritted teeth, “Just - ah! Need a minute…”

She kneels next to him, biting her lip as she touches a gentle hand to his shoulder and listens to his laboured breathing.

“That was too much, wasn’t it?”

“Apparently,” he grinds out. 

She licks her lips. “But you - you  _ did  _ connect with me. We were fifty feet away and you connected with me,” she breathes, “You’re not supposed to be able to do that for years -  _ a century _ at least -“

“Not me,” he bites out, and she stares at him, confused.

“Huh?”

Koschei takes a deep, shaky breath in through his nose, and lifts his head. His eyes are bloodshot and his nose is bleeding and she gasps, reaching out to touch his face.

“Not me,” he repeats. “We.” 

Theta’s lips part as she stares at him. 

“That’s what I’m saying,” he tells her, still panting, “it’s not just  _ me  _ that's powerful… it’s you too.” He laughs a bit, although it comes out more like a grimace. “I think you’re probably the strongest of the two of us actually.”

“What?” She frowns, “but I couldn’t even speak to you?”

“No,” he agrees. “But you don’t seem to be in any pain from what we just did.”

Theta pulls her hand away, holding it to herself with a small gasp as she stares at him, eyes wide. She shakes her head.

“But I - I’m no good at anything. School - all the telepathy exercises -... how can I have a knack for something I don’t understand?” She shakes her head again. “You’re wrong.”

“I’m not wrong,” Koschei insists. “I could feel it - you’re strong Theta,” he tells her. “Powerful. You just need to learn to understand it.” He winces, brow scrunching up, still in obvious pain. “That’s all I meant when I said you weren’t ready.”

Her shoulders slump and she leans forward, pressing her forehead to his. 

“Sorry,” she murmurs. “I don’t really think you’re arrogant.”

“Yes you do,” he smiles at her.

“Well okay I do a little bit - but you kind of  _ are _ a bit, and you know it too,” she smiles back.

“You love it,” Koschei replies, and inexplicably, Theta feels her whole face flush. 

“Shut up,” she chuckles, shoving at his shoulder before he winces again and she softens.

“Come on, let's get you inside.”

He shakes his head, tugging on her hand when she tries to pull him to his feet. 

“I just wanna lay here for a bit, where it’s quiet,” he explains, “stay with me?”

“Of course,” Theta nods, settling back down on the grass and stretching out to lay next to Koschei, both of them on their backs as the sun beats down on them. He sighs, and Theta glances over to see him with his eyes closed tightly and an arm flung over them. His other hand is still clasped around hers, and Theta slips her fingers in between his, linking their hands between them on the red grass and smiling as she looks up at the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for all the ao3 spam lately I cannot seem to stop writing atm...
> 
> Pleeease drop me a comment and let me know what you think if you have the time!! <3


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy friday! This is super short but I really need to stop writing and actually do some work before the end of this week so here we go...

They meet on their first day at school, when Theta is concentrating so hard on not dropping the little orange beetle she’d picked up in the playground she walks right into a small boy with dark hair loitering by the gates, and almost topples them both to the ground. 

“Hey! Watch where you’re walking!” He snaps, brushing himself off. 

“I dropped it!” Theta exclaims, watching mournfully as the tiny bug scuttles away. 

“What was that?” He frowns. 

“A grass beetle - they’re really common but they only change the colour of their bodies once in their life - from yellow to red and it’s _really_ rare to see one while it’s orange in between the two! Sorry I bumped into you,” she adds. 

“You should look where you’re going.”

“I know. What’s your name?”

He scowls at her. “Don’t like my name.”

Theta’s eyes light up. “Me either! That’s why I chose a new one,” she beams proudly, and he looks at her curiously. 

“You did?”

“Yep,” she nods, and sticks her tiny hand out. “Theta Sigma.”

Hesitantly, the little boy takes her hand in his own, letting her give it one firm shake before he snatches it back.

“That’s a stupid name,” he proclaims.

She shrugs. “I like it. You don’t have to use all of it in one go though. Just call me Theta.”

“Who says I’m gonna call you anything?”

“So what name are you gonna pick?”

“Pick?”

“May as well,” she shrugs. “First day. No one knows your real name yet, you can be whoever you want.”

He blinks at her a moment before his eyes slowly light up and the first smile she’s seen him give tugs at his lips.

“See!” She grins. “I’m clever. Should have told you that first. But I’m telling you now.”

“I’m clever too,” he says indignantly.

“Okay,” She grins again. “So what am I gonna call you?”

He considers. “Not sure. I’d need to think about it.”

Theta tilts her head, scrutinising him carefully. “How about Koschei?”

“That’s not a name.”

“Yes it is. Anything can be a name.”

“Like _Theta Singer?”_

“Sigma,” she corrects, “Yes! Koschei suits you, I think. I found a toad called Koschei. You remind me of him.”

“A _toad?”_

“Yeah! I collect them.”

The young boy frowns at her, like he doesn’t know quite what to make of her. “That’s dumb,” he concludes, and she shrugs, opening her mouth to offer another suggestion when the sound of a bell rings out, and adults dressed in long red robes start to herd them all towards the building. 

She sticks close by the dark-haired boy’s side, since he was technically the only other person she’d spoken to so far, and sits next to him when they’re all ushered into a large classroom for registration. 

They get picked on in turn, and asked to state their name, and Theta stands and proudly announces hers when it’s her turn, sitting back down as the professor nods and points to the boy next to her. 

“Name?”

He stands, and there’s a bit of a pause before he answers.

“... Koschei,” he says. “My name’s Koschei.”

Theta smiles. 

\--

Their first day only lasts a few hours, before they’re all released under instruction to be back early the next morning for lessons to properly begin. Theta and Koschei wander out through the playground together, him listening to her chatter on about the day. He doesn’t tell her to be quiet anyway, which is unlike everybody else Theta usually comes across, and she decides she likes him. 

“So,” she says, getting the end of her explanation on why the old fashioned type of pens were better than the ones they’d all been dealt today. “Do you wanna be friends?”

Koschei blinks at her. “Friends?”

“Yeah,” she nods eagerly. 

“I don’t need any friends.”

“Everybody needs friends, silly.”

“Not me.”

“Is that a yes or a no?”

Koschei pauses. “I… suppose,” he replies, and she beams. 

“Brilliant! Hey, want to come and see my toad collection?”

He looks at her for a moment.

“Okay,” he finally says and Theta grins and grabs his hand, towing him after her as she skips along. 

“Come on!” She says, “I’ll introduce you to Koschei!”

—

Koschei kills her toad. Grabs a rock and smashes the poor little creature over the head, and Theta stares at him, frozen where she’s sat cross legged on the grass, eyes flickering between the bloodied mangled toad and the small boy with a rock in his hand in shock. 

Her bottom lip wobbles.

“Why… why did you do that?” She demands.

He shrugs. “If Koschei’s gonna be my name there can’t be a disgusting slimy creature called that too.”

“You killed him!”

He frowns at her. “It was just a toad.”

“He was a living creature! You can’t kill living things! How would you like it if I hit you over the head with a rock and took your life away?”

He blinks, eyes widening like the thought had never occurred to him. “You’re upset,” he states after a moment, like he’s surprised, and Theta sniffs, rubbing angrily at her eyes. 

“Of course I’m upset!”

Koschei drops the rock, staring down at the dead toad. 

“I…”

“Go away!” Theta tells him, reaching over and pushing at him. “I don’t wanna be your friend anymore.”

“But - I just -”

“Go away!” She snaps, sniffing again and wiping her nose with her sleeve, carefully collecting up her remaining toads and putting them safely away. There’s a pause before Koschei gets up, and she doesn’t look round as he walks away. 

\--  
The next morning, Koschei finds her in the playground before school. 

“Hi,” he says, sidling up to her. Theta folds her little arms and looks away.

“I’m… I’m sorry about the frog.”

“Toad,” she snaps. 

“Toad, then.” There’s a short pause. “I got you something.”

Hesitantly, she looks round, noticing that his hands were cupped together. “You… did?”

Koschei nods and lifts his hands, parting them enough for her to see a tiny orange grass beetle trapped between them. She gasps, lifting her own hands and letting him transfer the bug into them. She giggles as it scuttles over her palm, its little feet tickling. 

“This one’s even better than the one I found yesterday!” She enthuses, “that one was almost red but this one’s just started to change!”

Koschei shrugs. “I tried to find you another toad but there was only one near the pond and they’re _really_ hard to catch.”

Theta finds herself smiling at him. “You have to be patient. They don’t like being grabbed, and they’re hard to keep hold of too.”

“They’re really slippery,” he agrees and she giggles. 

The small boy rubs at the back of his neck, shuffling next to Theta a little awkwardly as she stares at the bug in her hands. 

“So…” He says after a moment. “Can we - you know. Still be friends?”

Theta looks up, considering. “I don’t know,” she says. “You did kill Koschei.”

“I know. And I really am sorry.”

She narrows her eyes at him. “Are you sorry because you killed him or sorry because it made me not want to be your friend?”

“Both,” he admits. “And I made you cry, and I didn’t like that.”

“You didn’t?”

“No. It made my tummy feel weird.”

“Oh.”

“So… can we be friends again?”

“I thought you didn’t need any friends?”

“I don’t,” he replies immediately, “But you clearly do and nobody else is going to hang around with you if you keep chattering on about pens and bugs.” 

She grins, seeing through the insult. 

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yes, we can be friends. Even better than that.”

“Better than friends?”

“We can be best friends!” She beams. 

And they were. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes she named him after her toad. 
> 
> In hindsight, I probably could have scraped this all together with some semblance of a plot and written it all chronologically but oh well - I’m kind of enjoying the freedom of writing whatever comes to mind with these two and I hope the jumping around in time isn’t too off-putting! Your thoughts are appreciated! :)


	5. Chapter 5

They’d been paired up for today’s class exercises. Koschei had gravitated to Theta’s side as soon as the lesson had been announced, but their professor had chosen their partners, sending them to opposite sides of the room and leaving Theta with a dark haired girl with large brown eyes who’d recently been moved up from the year below. 

Most of her classmates thought Theta was a bit odd, and that didn’t really bother her. She’d always felt a little out of place in the world ever since she was small - Koschei was the only one who seemed to understand her. But Illana seemed nice - she’d listened intently when Theta had babbled on about brainwaves and nerves and Theta finds it easy to form a surface connection with her, the other girl’s mind quiet and calm around hers when they link up. 

“You’re good at this,” Illana smiles. 

“Shh,” says Theta, eyes closed. _Speak in here, remember._

_Oh right, yeah. It’s just…_ She can feel her straining, and opens her eyes to see Illana sitting with an intense frown on her face. 

_Don’t try too hard,_ Theta offers, and the other girl’s eyes snap open. 

“It’s difficult,” she huffs. "I can think what I want to say to you, but getting you to hear it is hard.” 

“It’s alright,” says Theta, easing the connection apart. “I found it really hard too, to start with. It’s just practice, and getting a grasp on the different sections of your own mind.”

She tilts her head at her. “You seem to find it so easy now,” she says, and Theta shrugs, glancing away. She doesn’t mention that it’s because she’s had _years_ more practice than most people in this room since she and Koschei had been connecting up since they were young, spending hours and hours lost in each other's minds. By the time they were finally prompted to start attempting it in school, telepathy was like second nature to the two of them. 

Her eyes slide over to him of their own will where he sits across the classroom from her working with his own partner. A pair of dark eyes meet hers, apparently already watching her, and Theta tilts her head at the deep frown on his face. 

_What?_ She projects at him, and he looks away without answering. 

“Something wrong?”

Theta is dragged back to the girl sitting opposite her cross legged on the floor, her head tilted curiously, and she quickly shakes her head. 

“No, nothing. Shall we try again?”

They connect up again, exchanging some simple phrases like they’d been directed to do, but Illana clearly still struggles to hold the connection, and Theta is distracted now; gaze drifting over to Koschei across the room more than once, and catching him watching her almost every time. 

“Damnit!” The girl sitting opposite her curses, and Theta snaps her gaze back to her just in time to see her open her eyes with a frustrated frown. “I lost it again. I’m so sorry - I’m awful at this.”

“Hey no, it’s okay,” Theta tells her, and glances around before reaching out for her hand. “Here,” she says, “let’s try like this first.” She brings Illana’s hand to her temple, nodding encouragingly. 

“But… we’re supposed to be able to form a connection without the need to touch by now,” she hesitates. 

“I know, but sometimes it can help to connect this way first,” she tells her. “Just give it a try.”

Illana touches her fingertips to Theta’s temple, and she feels her mind wrap around hers. She is soft and gentle, her mind light like a butterfly that tickles at the edges of Theta’s consciousness. It’s very different to the way Koschei feels in her head; warm - hot - burning like a hearth fire but the comforting kind, wrapping her up in his essence until she feels like he could carry her away.

“Who’s Koschei?”

Theta snaps her eyes open and hastily breaks the connection, cheeks flushing. “Sorry - just my friend. He - I think I might have glanced over at him when you connected with me.”

“Oh.” Illana looks round, and Theta’s eyes widen when she sees Koschei still looking back at them. His frown depends, scowling at the girl and she quickly looks away.

“Is that him in the corner?”

“Uh,” Theta swallows, a little thrown by the intensity in his gaze. “Yeah, yes. Sorry. He’s - he can be a bit intense. He doesn’t mean to glare at you like that.” She projects the last part of her sentence across the room into Koschei’s head too as she speaks it, a little warning.

_Yes I did._

“Yeah,” Illana is nodding as Theta hastily shoves Koschei back out of her head, “I got the intense part. I could feel that when you were thinking of him.”

Theta tilts her head. “You could?”

“Yes.”

“Uhh… what else did you feel - or see?” She asks a little nervously, praying she hadn’t let any other stray thoughts lose.

“I don’t know really,” the girl frowns. “It just felt kind of hot.”

“Oh,” she says, biting the inside of her cheek. “Hey,” she quickly says to cover her fluster, “that’s good though, that you could feel that! It means you were really opening up your senses to the connection.”

Illana brightens. “It does?”

“Yeah! We should try again. I’ll focus better this time, sorry.” 

She reaches for Illanas hand and her eyes accidentally catch Koschei’s dark stare _again_ and she forces them away once more, clearing her throat. “Ready?”

—

By the end of the session Illana finds she can open and hold a connection with Theta without physical contact, and she manages to project all the thoughts from the class exercises successfully. She’s buzzing with energy, elated as they file out of the classroom and chattering on animatedly to Theta about how good it had felt.

Theta laughs at something Illana says and opens her mouth to reply to her when she feels a hand wrap tight round her elbow and looks round to see Koschei behind her.

“My room,” he murmurs in her ear, and she turns to frown at him in surprise. 

“What?”

“I need to talk to you. Now.”

He stalks away and Theta blinks after him, a little baffled, but turns to tell Illana she’ll catch up with her in a bit and slips away, hurrying up the stairs towards the dorms. 

She has scarcely stepped inside his room when she finds herself slammed back against the door as it shuts with a bang, pinned there by Koschei’s tense form as he kisses her deeply, hands all over her and leg pressing in between hers. He starts tugging at her shirts, dragging them out and yanking at the fastenings of her trousers and shaking herself out of the surprise, Theta abruptly realises he has more than just a kiss in mind. 

“Koschei,” she gasps, pulling away, “What are you - we have another class in a minute!”

“Don’t care,” he growls, leaning in to kiss her again. 

His mouth is hot against hers, tongue sliding over her own and making her whole body heat up from the inside the way he always seemed to be able to do, as his hips press insistently into her own. 

He feels good against her - he always feels good, but something in the way he is kissing her so hard she can barely draw a breath and sliding his hands over every inch of her gives her pause. She pulls away again, pushing him back, both of them panting hard and flushed as they stare at each other. Koschei’s eyes are dark, searching her own intently and she frowns, placing a gentle hand on his cheek.

“Koschei. What’s gotten into you?”

“Nothing,” he says immediately. “I just want you.”

“But wha -“

_Contact._

_Contact,_ she answers the insistent press in her head. _What’s wrong?_

He doesn’t answer her, turning her and pressing her frontways into the door, his body pressed up against her back as he turns his head to kiss and nip at her neck, nimble hands undressing her quickly. 

Theta moans, arching back against him as he mouths at that spot just below her ear that turns her insides to jelly. Something is niggling inside her head, telling her that something wasn’t quite right - and another insistent thought is reminding her that they _shouldn’t_ be doing this right now when they have classes to get to, but Koschei’s mind is wrapped tight around hers, letting her feel all the burning hot desire pumping through his blood and it makes her knees weak and her head spin with lust. 

_Need you - let me_ , he’s rambling hoarsely in her mind and she’s nodding hastily, one hand flying up to grip his hair as he kisses her neck, the other braced against the door, nails curling into the wood as he pushes her trousers down and shoves her coat out of the way. 

_Need to be inside you,_ he continues, and Theta isn’t sure if he’s rambling to her or himself. _Me, only me… need you to know you’re_ **_mine_ ** _…_

Theta gasps as the word is imprinted into her mind just as Koschei thrusts inside her, and suddenly all of this makes sense. She doesn't know why she hadn’t realised before. 

“You’re jealous,” she breathes. 

“Ridiculous,” he growls into her hair, moving inside her in short, sharp thrusts. 

“You are - that’s - that’s what this is about. Illana.”

“ _Don’t!”_ He growls, his voice so loud by her ear it makes her flinch. He is panting, breathing ragged and laboured and Theta feels him tremble against her. “Don’t… don’t say another name when I’m inside you like this…”

Theta frowns, trying to get her thoughts in order. _And I’m the one being ridiculous?_ She projects. He doesn’t reply, holding her tight and moving his hand down over her stomach and between her legs, fingers shaking as they slip over her, and she curses that he can play her body like she is a well tuned instrument and he a master of it. Pleasure numbs her mind, and Theta arches against him, gasping as he moves inside her, feeling that this wasn’t going to last long for either of them. 

Koschei bites down on her neck when he comes, grunting into her as his teeth sink into her skin so sharply she yelps at the sting, body shuddering against his, the shock of pain inexplicably triggering a something that felt a lot like a second wave of climactic pleasure as Koschei finishes inside her. 

They slump against the door together, panting, neither capable of moving for a long moment, his mind still hot inside her own but calmer now, basking in their shared pleasure. After a short while, she gives an uncomfortable little moan and shifts, prompting him to extract himself from around her, letting her turn to slump back against the door so she can look into his eyes. 

She frowns, the encounter whirling round her head. 

“I’m not yours.” She states, deciding that’s a good place to start. 

Koschei opens his mouth, looks for a moment like he’s going to argue, a scowl on his face, and then he moves away, turning his back as he pulls his clothes back together. Still panting, Theta reaches down and does the same, crossing the room to perch down on his bed when she’s fully dressed again. 

Koschei is pacing now, shoulders hunched and footsteps restless like a caged animal and she watches him for a moment, head tilted at the intense emotions he’s radiating before she holds out a hand. 

He pauses, looks at her a moment before she watches his form relax a little, and he moves over to her, letting her take his hand and tug him down to sit next to her. 

“Did I hurt you?” He says, lifting a hand to brush her hair back from her neck. It still smarts and she shrugs him away. 

“A bit.”

They lock eyes and she sighs, opening her mouth to speak again, “Koschei -”

“Theta -” He says at the same time and they both pause and look at each other. 

She swallows. “You go first,” she offers, and Koschei’s shoulders slump as he looks down at his lap. 

“I was too rough with you; I’m sorry.”

Theta bites her lip. “I didn’t mind that part,” she admits, and he looks up in surprise. 

“You didn’t?”

“No... “ she frowns. “It's the motivation behind it I don’t like.” They look at each other for another moment and Koschei opens his mouth to argue - she reaches out and places a hand on his cheek. “You’ve got no reason to be jealous,” she tells him quickly. 

“I’m _not_ jealous,” he snarls.

“Koschei,” she sighs. “Remember when we were small and I made friends with that boy from the class above?”

“The fishy one?”

“The one who collected rare species of fish, yes,” she huffs.

“Yes.” She sees his jaw tense. “What about him?”

“And we all went fishing together after school?” She prompts and Koschei looks away, stubbornly folding his arms. She huffs again. “And you almost drowned him in the pond?”

“I did no such thing.”

“You pushed him in,” Theta says, unimpressed; they’ve had this argument before. “And you knew he couldn’t swim.”

“That’s hardly my fault. He should’ve learnt.”

“Koschei!”

“Fine, fine - I shouldn’t have pushed him, you made me apologise for that _years_ ago, what’s your point?”

“Yes and he never spoke to me again, and you were _glad_ about it.”

He looks away, not denying it. 

Theta frowns at him. “I’m not yours, Koschei. You know you have both my hearts but I don’t belong to you.”

He turns his head back to look at her then. “Do I?”

“Like you don’t know,” she huffs, rolling her eyes. “You can’t keep me completely to yourself. It’s not fair. I love you. But this jealousy thing I don’t like.”

“Kind of felt like you liked it a minute ago,” he quips, a little spitefully, and Theta frowns. 

She gets abruptly to her feet. “You need to get a grip.” She tells him. “I’m going to class.”

Koschei doesn’t respond and Theta leaves him there to sulk, letting the door swing shut a little harder than necessary behind her and marching down to her next class, annoyed and frustrated.

She slips in quietly, slinking into a seat at the back next to Illana who motions her over when she spots her.

“Where did you go?” She leans over to whisper.

“Uh - my friend wasn’t feeling well,” she mutters quickly, excusing his absence too.

Illana nods and makes to look away before she does a bit of a double take, eyes widening.

“What happened to your neck!?”

Thetas stomach flips and she claps a hand over it. “Nothing! Nothing just… - allergies.”

“Oh.” Illana nods. “It looks nasty, you should put some cream or something on it.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Theya mumbles, yanking her hair down around her neck and mentally cursing Koschei loud enough for him to hear from upstairs.

He doesn’t answer her, but she feels smugness radiate from him and knows he’s glad. Theta folds her arms and slumps in her chair, seething for the rest of the lesson and vowing to have more words with him later. 

—

To her surprise, Koschei is waiting in the hallway when they file out of class, leaning back against the wall with his arms folded.

“Oh hey! You’re Theta’s friend!” Illana greets him before Theta can open her mouth to ask what he’s doing here. “Are you feeling better? Theta said you were unwell.”

Koschei glances between them before he nods. “Much, thank you.”

Theta opens her mouth to make an excuse and tug him away before he could cause any trouble when he surprises her by speaking again first. 

“Actually, Theta and I were going to have lunch outside today. You could... join us. If you want. Or not - whatever.”

Theta is so surprised by the grunted invitation that she can’t find the words to reply - luckily Illana speaks up, nodding quickly.

“Sure! I’d love to. Don’t really know anybody else from this class yet so that would be really nice.”

Koschei nods once, before turning on his heel, and Theta glances at Illana before they both follow, Theta hurrying to fall into step with Koschei. 

_You’re not going to poison her are you?_ She asks Koschei silently, only half joking, and hears his chuckle in her mind as he smiles next to her.

_Not this time my dear. Just… making an effort. You were right. It’s not fair of me to try and keep you to myself._

_Well… thanks,_ she smiles back. 

“Are you two talking?”

Both of them glance round in surprise, blinking at Illana and realising that she’d asked them something they’d both ignored. Theta’s cheeks flush.

“Sorry - that was really rude. Just - just checking he felt better.”

“Oh no, it’s fine,” Illana says brightly. “I’m just amazed how easy it seems to be for both of you! You can _walk_ and have a telepathic conversation at the same time! I have to concentrate so hard to even hold a connection I’d definitely fall over if I even tried doing anything else.”

Theta chuckles and even Koschei cracks an amused smile. 

“We could help you after lunch if you like?” She offers the girl who nods eagerly as they all head to the hall for some food. 

“Oh hey are you alright out here with your allergies?” Illana asks Theta when they settle down on the grass, and her face flushes. 

“What allergies?” Koschei frowns before she can hastily explain. 

“That rash on her neck.”

Koschei coughs on his mouthful of fruit and Theta hastily looks away, biting down on the inside of her cheek and trying not to laugh. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for the lovely comments on this one so far! I have loads more of these planned and if there's any scenarios or situations you want to see these particular two in please hit me up!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy valentines day lovlies! This is soft af

The first time he kisses her is under a double full moon - a rarity that only occurs once every ten rotations. 

Her hand had been gripped tightly in his all evening as they’d wandered along the riverbank, chattering on about anything and everything, and when Koschei pulled her to sit down with him he’d thrown an arm around her shoulders and she’d leant into him, letting her mind brush against his, lazily sharing nonsense thoughts with him for a while.

Their race is not a particularly tactile species, but chaste kisses of affection and greetings between spouses isn’t completely unheard of, and she and Koschei had definitely been edging more out of friendship territory and into romantic of late - but it still takes the young gallifreyan by surprise when he leans in and suddenly presses his lips to hers.

Theta gives a sound of surprise against his mouth, going very still against the contact, and when he pulls away after just a few seconds her eyes are wide and both hearts are pounding. 

They stare at each other for a beat.

“Sorry,” Koschei says after a moment, clearly taking her stunned silence for a negative reaction. His cheeks flush and he breaks eye contact, looking away. “I shouldn’t’ve - um - forget that happened.”

“No - no it,” she licks her lips, chest heaving, “I liked it.”

He looks up again. “You did?”

“Yes,” she nods, considering, her gaze flickering between his eyes and his mouth. She lurches forward, pressing her lips clumsily to his again, eyes closed, and she feels Koschei jump a bit, and realises perhaps she should have said something first - but then his hand is moving up to gently cup her face and he’s pressing back, and Theta melts into him, smiling a little against his lips in giddy excitement. 

When they break apart this time both of them are flushed and a little breathless and Koschei is smiling too. 

“I got you something,” he mumbles after a moment and her eyebrows shoot up in surprise. 

“You did?”

Koschei nods and fumbles in his pockets before presenting her with a tiny glass bottle holding a little bright orange grass beetle inside. She gasps, laughing a little as she takes it from him. 

“Don’t open the bottle,” he says, “it’s preserved. It’ll stay orange forever.”

“You remembered,” she smiles, thinking back to the first day they had met as small children. 

“Yep,” he grins. “You’re supposed to give flowers but uh…” He shrugs, looking a bit awkward, “You’re not really a flower sort of person so I thought…”

Looking up at him from the beetle, Theta frowns in confusion. “Supposed to?”

He nods his head up towards the double full moons. “This day used to be celebrated between…” he gestures between them, fumbling for words. 

She tilts her head. “Friends?”  
“No. Not friends.” His eyes find hers, “two people who were more than that to each other.”

“Oh,” Theta says, breath inexplicable coming out short. “When?”

“A long time ago. Before the laws were passed - you know. Uh - before the looms. I found a book in the library about all the old traditions.”

“Oh,” she says again, looking down at her beetle with a blush. “You shouldn’t be looking at those kind of things,” she mumbles. 

“I know, I know,” he sighs. “I just thought the idea was kind of nice.”  
Theta bites her lip, turning the little glass bottle round in her hand. “It is,” she smiles, and glances up. “The beetle’s way better than flowers. I would have prefered a live one but…”

He frowns. “But then it wouldn’t stay orange. It would just change to red and you wouldn’t like it anymore. This way you can keep it that colour forever.”

She smiles at him. The thought was kind of sweet, she had to admit. And Koschei giving her a dead beetle as a romantic gift really was about as Koschei as it could be. 

“Thank you,” she says, and sets it carefully beside her on the grass before turning back to him and after a brief second of contemplation, plants another quick kiss on his lips. 

He is smiling at her again as she looks away, fiddling with her sleeves, bottom lip caught between her teeth. 

“You really do like that, huh?” He teases and she rolls her eyes, cheeks flushing as she shoves him.   
“Shut up.”

“You can kiss me again, if you want.”

“Oh yeah? Such a privilege,” she teases back.

“I’m feeling generous tonight,” he grins, and she shoves him again. 

“You’re so full of it.”

“That’s why you love me.”

The words leave his lips teasingly, but they both freeze after he’s spoken them, eyes widening as they stare at each other. 

Of course, she’d told him she loved him before - and he, her - many times, ever since they were little and she was certain she loved her friend more than anyone else in the universe. But for the first time, the words seem to hold more depth tonight, and Theta can’t quite put her finger on how or why. She loves him. She’s loved Koschei for as long as she can remember - so why does that suddenly feel like a brand new realisation?

She doesn’t know what to say - so she leans in and kisses him again instead. 

He wraps an arm around her waist and a little whimper escapes Theta as he pulls her closer, her hands coming up to clutch at his shirt, her hearts beating so fast in her chest she’s certain he must be able to feel them when their torsos press together. 

They stay like that for a moment - she isn’t sure how long, but finds she isn’t in a particular hurry for the lingering kiss to end, Kosche’s lips moving softly against hers, alternating the pressure, and Theta presses forward with a needy little sigh, her lips parting on instinct, almost like she could breathe him in like air. 

Kosche’s arm pulls her closer still, and he tilts his head, nose bumping her own as he angles his mouth against hers, lips parting - and then suddenly a warm, soft tongue is pressing forward between her lips. 

She jumps back with a gasp. “What was that?”

“What?” Koschei says, although his cheeks are flushed a bright pink.

“That - you - you put your tongue in my mouth!”

“Well - your mouth was open,” he splutters, “you - I just thought -... I’m sorry.”

Theta bites her lip, contemplating. “No,” she finally decides, “it’s… it’s okay. It just… surprised me. It felt kind of nice.”

“It did?”

“I think so.” She licks her lips, considering. “You could try it again?”

Koschei’s eyes flicker from her own down to her lips and back several times before he leans in, and Theta is ready this time when his parted lips press against her own.

She feels the brush of his tongue against her bottom lip, just lightly, and she opens her mouth, her own tongue pressing forward of its own violation to brush against Koschei’s. She makes a small sound of surprise at the pleasantness that floods through her from the contact, and is less embarrassed when she hears Koschei groan quietly into the kiss too. Was it still a kiss? Is that what this was? Quite honestly she doesn’t know what they’re doing, just that it feels good and she really doesn’t want to stop any time soon. 

Koschei’s hand touches her cheek as their mouths move against each other, his fingers slipping past her ear and into her hair and she gives a little gasp against his mouth before pressing closer, her own hands sliding up over his shoulders and clinging to the back of his neck. 

It feels good, and heated and exciting, and when she feels the nudge of Koschei’s mind against her own the warmth that floods through her is almost overwhelming. It’s intense opening a connection when their mouths are joined like this, and Theta’s hearts beat wildly in her chest, her head spinning, feeling a little like she could drown in him like this. 

_Want to stop?_ She hears the question in her head. 

_No,_ she answers quickly, pressing forward, nails curling a little into the back of his neck as she opens her mouth more against his. 

_Sure? You feel…_ he doesn’t finish his question, but he lets her feel the erratic energy she’s giving off and she forces herself to calm down, focusing on the gentle stroke of his tongue against her own and the fingers caressing the back of her head where they’re buried in her hair. 

_I’m good_ , she tells him firmly, projecting all of the warmth and pleasantness he’s making her feel. 

Light is almost starting to peak over the horizon by the time they clamber to their feet, regretfully realising they had better get back to the academy before anybody notices they’d been out all night. Theta scoops up the little glass bottle with the perfectly preserved insect inside in one hand and slips the other into Koschei’s, her fingers sliding between his own and linking together. 

She lifts the tiny bottle up as they walk, smiling as she peers at the bug inside. 

“Do you know how long their life cycle is?” She asks Koschei. 

“No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me,” he replies tolerantly. 

“It’s fifteen rotations! Isn’t that crazy for an insect? It’s one of the longest life spans any beetle has - but in all that time it’s only orange for two days.”

“Really?”

“Yep,” she nods, “That’s why finding one this colour is so rare.”

“Well,” he says, “Now you’ve got one that colour forever.”

She throws him a smile, then bites her lip as she looks back at the bottle. “I do feel kind of bad it had to die for it though.”

“It’s a bug, Theta.”

“It’s still alive.”

“Not anymore.”

“Koschei,” she huffs, elbowing him as he sniggers. 

“We can always throw it away if you don’t like it.” He reaches for the jar. 

“No!” She gasps, holding it to her chest and Koschei laughs and drops her hand to throw his arm around her shoulders instead as they walk. He turns his head to press a kiss to the top of her hair. 

“I do like it,” she tells him, leaning into his side. “I’m gonna keep it forever.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

Koschei walks her up to her room, and she drops his hand to let herself in, creaking the door open quietly and turning on the threshold to look back at him. 

“I’ll see you in class?” She whispers, and he nods, glancing out the window at the end of the hall. 

“In a few hours I reckon. We’re gonna be so tired.”

“Worth it,” Theta grins, and glances quickly around to ensure the hallway is empty before she stands up on her tiptoes and presses another kiss to his lips. She intends it to be brief, but finds herself lingering there, Koschei’s hand moving to gently touch her waist. 

“Is this how we say goodbye now?” He murmurs against her lips when they part. 

“I hope so,” she grins, and after one more quick kiss she spins on her heel and slips into her room, closing the door quietly behind her. 

Theta is still smiling as she sets the bottle carefully on a shelf in her room, clambering into bed and flopping down onto her side, gazing at the perfectly preserved orange beetle sleepily until her eyes slide shut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor defo still has that beetle stashed in her Tardis somewhere.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for forced miscarriage. Lots of angst and h/c ahead so you might want to avoid this one anyway, I apologise in advance if you do read on!

Koschei had found her some herbs, after that first night that they’d lain together. He’d given her a bit of a panic actually, disappearing off without a word for almost the entire day afterwards, and Theta had thought he was regretting what they’d done. Until he’d stumbled into her room that evening, wet through from the rain and muddy up to his knees, and presented Theta with a small bundle wrapped in cloth.

“What - what’s this? - Where have you _been?”_

“Herbs,” Koschei told her, grimacing as he shrugged off his wet coat and bent to yank off muddied shoes. “Found a book in the library - buried bright at the back - took some digging. Then I finally found these down in one of the markets at the bottom end of the city. It’s _awful_ down there.”

Theta glanced from the herbs to him, blinking in bemusement.

“But… what are they for?”

“For you!” He spluttered like it was obvious, collapsing down in the chair across the room with a tired sigh. 

“Um…”

“You know!” He gestured to her, then himself, and she was surprised to see a blush on his cheeks. “So there isn’t… _consequences…_ to what we did.”

Theta had stared at him for another second before her eyes went wide as she finally caught on.

“Oh… my gods,” she breathed, staring down at the herbs. “I never… I didn’t even think of that.”

“Yeah well lucky one of us has a brain isn’t it,” he grumbled. 

Theta bit her lip, hearts suddenly pounding as the weight of the situation hit her. Of course she did _know,_ she knew what they’d done, but she’d been so preoccupied with worry that Koschei had had second thoughts, the fact hadn’t even occurred to her that day. “How do I take them?”

“A spoonful in tea, every third night. Two spoons tonight though, since it’s after we… um, you know.”

“Oh,” she felt her cheeks flush as she nodded, “okay.”

A short, slightly awkward pause fell between them then. 

“What’s wrong?” Koschei frowned after a moment. 

“Nothing,” Theta said quickly, avoiding his eyes. “I’m just - it’s been a long day. I was worried.”

“Worried?”

“You left,” she bit her lip, looking down as she fiddled with the bundle, “you hardly said anything this morning, then you just left and I didn’t see you all day, I thought…”

She trailed off, and heard Koschei sigh from across the room, before he held out a hand to her. Placing the herbs carefully beside her bed, Theta got to her feet and padded across the small room to settle down on his lap, his arms wrapping around her. He was soaked through but she didn’t care, curling up she reached up and ran her fingers through his wet dark hair. He guided her in for a kiss and pressed his lips softly to hers, his mind nudging wordlessly against her own, and Theta felt like her whole world shifted back into place. 

Koschei had never been the best with words, but he showed her what he was feeling then; tired but content - love, happiness… he projected an image from the night before, a memory of her laid out beneath him, her eyes closed and mouth open, brow furrowed in pleasure and heat all around him and she flushed, moaning a little into the kiss at the heated reminder of what they’d done.

Koschei’s hand slipped from where it was resting on her thigh to between her legs as he kissed her, cupping her almost reverently, nimble fingers pressing there lightly, then caressing her steadily as she whimpered and parted her legs for him. 

“Does that… does it feel good?” He murmured against her mouth, and Theta nodded, biting her lip. “Like this?”

“Yeah,” she breathed, moving her hands down to tug open her trousers and taking his hand in her own, guiding up and down inside the material, down so his fingers could touch bare flesh where she had been aching for him again since the night before. 

“Show me,” Koschei breathed. 

“Koschei,” she mumbled to him in the dark some time later, when they were lying curled up together in her bed. An empty mug of tea sat beside the bed, the bitter taste of the herbs still sharp in her mouth. 

“Hmm?”

“Will it definitely work? The herbs I mean,” she whispered a little fearfully. 

He sighed, smoothing a hand down her back. “Yeah, they’ll work. As long as you remember - every third night. You can’t miss any.”

“I will,” she nodded firmly, relaxing in his arms. “I won’t forget.”

\---

“How could you forget!?”

“I didn’t do it on purpose!”

“ _One thing_ , you have to remember Theta - how could you forget something this important!?”

“Don’t blame me, it’s not just my fault - you’re supposed to remind me too! Why is it only my responsibility!?”

“Because it’s your body!”

They both freeze and stare at each other, the heat of the argument suddenly turning icy cold, Theta’s mouth dropping open. 

“No - wait, I mean -”

“It’s your _cock_ ,” she hisses furiously, picking up the pillow she’d been clutching and hurling it at him, standing from the bed and making to march from the room. 

“Wait - Theta -” Koschei hurriedly blocks the door. 

“Out of my way!”

“I didn’t mean it like that - you’re right, it’s my fault too, I just - I reacted okay! This - is a lot to take in!”

“You’re telling me!” Theta snaps, “You’re not the one who’s got an actual fucking _baby_ inside you!” Her voice cracks on the last words and Koschei watches in shock as she crumbles to the floor, head in her hands as she kneels on the ground, dissolving into tears. He gives himself a shake after a second of stunned silence and drops down beside her, hastily gathering her into his arms, pulling them both backwards to lean against the door and holding her as she cries. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispers to her over and over. “I didn’t mean any of that - you’re right. I’m sorry. It’s not your fault. I’m so sorry.”

When she finally lifts her head from his shoulder and sits back to look at him her eyes are red and wide and worried, and Koschei feels a twinge in his chest. 

“What are we going to do?” She whispers, chin wobbling and eyes filling with more tears she tries to hold back. Koschei stares at her for a moment before her gets to his feet abruptly. 

“I’ll sort it.”

“But - how?”

“Don’t worry,” he says firmly, helping her off the floor and over to the bed, leaning down and pressing a fierce kiss to the top of her head. “I’m going to sort this.” 

It had been a good two years ago now, but Koschei remembers reading something in that book he had found with the information about the herbs about a different kind of herb - one that was used to fix situations such as this. He only hopes it’s still buried in the library somewhere. 

\--

Theta is nearly frantic by the time he gets back to her room when the moons are high in the sky that night. 

“Where were you!? You’ve been gone all day!” 

“Sorting it,” he grunts out gruffly, fishing something out of his pocket and shoving a cloth bundle at her, much like he had two years ago. “You don’t want to know where I had to go and how much I had to pay to get hold of these.”

She carefully opens the cloth and stares down at the little red herbs before looking back up at Koschei with wide eyes. “This will… er, sort it?” She repeats his words and he nods tensely once. 

“Should do. I’ll get some hot water.”

He perches next to her on the bed, handing her the freshly brewed tea in a steaming mug when it’s done. She takes it, swallowing loud enough for him to hear in the quiet rom. 

“Are you sure this will work?” She frets.

“No,” he says. “But there’s only one way to find out.”

Theta sniffs the tea before taking a cautious sip. She pulls a face. “How will we know?” She worries. “If it’s worked?”

Koschei looks back at her honestly. “I don’t know. I suppose we’ll just have to wait. And see if you - you know.”

Theta nods, silent as she drinks the rest. 

\--

It turns out they don’t need to wait all that long. Koschei is awoken at dawn by a whimper of his name, and Theta’s small hand twisted in his shirt. 

“Hmm?” He groans, rolling over to face her and immediately sitting bolt upright when he takes one look at her face. “What’s wrong?”

“I think - I think it worked Koschei,” she whispers, sweat building on her brow as she curls onto her side. “It hurts…”

He lifts the covers to see blood on the bedsheets, and Theta’s arms clutched over her stomach. 

“... Oh,” he replies.

Theta squeezes her eyes shut, tears falling from them as she trembles, moaning quietly. 

“My love,” Koschei whispers, hand on her cheek, hearts aching to see her hurting like this. She curls into him, letting him hold her for a while as she cries quietly, his fingers stroking through her hair. 

“Come on,” he murmurs a little while later. “We should get you cleaned up.”

Theta nods silently and lets Koschei help her out of bed and to the bathroom and undress her carefully before turning on the shower and standing shivering under the spray when he helps her inside. He’s waiting with a towel when she steps out, wrapping her up and holding her close, rubbing his hands over her until she’s dry and helping her dress. 

They bump into one of their classmates waiting his turn for the bathroom when they step outside, Koschei’s arm around Theta’s shoulders and he blinks at them, confused. “What were you both doing in there together?”

Theta tenses, but Koschei just pulls her close. “She’s sick, mind your own business,” He snaps at their peer, hurrying her past him. 

She hasn’t said a word yet, and still doesn’t as Koschei sits her down on a chair and quickly strips off the bed sheets and changes them. 

“Theta?” He prompts when he holds out a hand and she doesn’t react, and she gives a little jump and looks up, before slipping her hand into his and allowing him to help her back into bed. 

“I have to go down to class and tell them you’re unwell,” he murmurs, pulling clean sheets up to her chin. 

She nods. “I’ll be fine,” she whispers. 

Koschei drops a kiss to her forehead, hating that he has to leave her when he sees her eyes well with tears again, and vows to be as quick as possible as he hurries from her room. 

His professor is snappy with him when he turns up late, and even snappier when he informs him he’s not staying.

“Theta Sigma being unwell doesn’t require your absence too Koschei,” he says sternly. “Sit down.”

“I need to stay with her,” Koschei growls, not moving from the doorway. 

“Why?”

“She - she’s sick, she needs me.”

“Your friend can manage a few hours without you. Sit.”

“No!” He snaps, louder than he intended, mentally chastising himself when the whole class turn in their seats to look at him. He clears his throat. “I’ve been with her all night, I’ve probably already caught what she’s got too. You don’t want me here so I can give the whole class the stomach flu, do you?” 

His professor glares at him with narrowed eyes for a moment before he waves a hand. “Fine. You’re excused. But we’ll be having words about your attitude when you’re back in class.”

“Whatever,” Koschei mutters, turning and hurrying back up to the dorms. 

Theta is curled on her side in bed, and looks up with surprise when he lets himself into her room. 

“You’re back?” She croaks.

“Of course I’m back love,” Koschei murmurs, crossing the room and laying down behind her on the bed, curling around her. He presses a kiss to her head.

“But - what about class?”

“You’re more important.”

“Didn’t you get in trouble? What did you say?”

“Shh,” he gushes her when she makes to turn in his arms, brow creased in worry, “it’s all fine, don’t worry about any of that. Just rest, I’m here.”

Theta nods, relaxing against him, his hand automatically going down to rest over her stomach and hers on top. 

They lay like that for a while. Koschei tentatively reaches out with his mind at one point, but finds she’s projecting so much anguish it hurts his head and hers too when he tries to connect with her on top of it, so he hurriedly breaks it off and leaves her be, holding her tightly and just being with her here instead. 

“I’m sorry,” she keeps mumbling, over and over, her small form shaking against his.

“Theta,” he finally says ,”why are you apologising?” He asks gently.

“M’not talking to you,” she whispers, and Koschei’s hearts break open a little.

“We had to do it,” he whispers back after a moment. “It wasn’t your fault. We _had to.”_

There’s a pause before she nods. “I know,” she replies, “just didn’t think it would hurt this much.”

“The pains still bad? Let me go and get you something to ease -“

“No,” she shakes her head, clinging to him, “I don’t mean the cramps...”

“...Oh.”

\--

She doesn’t want him to touch her for a month after that. He understands, and he doesn’t push, content to sleep next to her when she crawls into his bed in the night and slips her hand into his, carrying on as normal during the days and pretending he doesn’t notice when he catches her looking off into the distance with a stricken expression. 

They don’t speak of it, and he knows it’s for the best, for what was to be said? What happened was an accident, they'd been careless and they resolved it the only way they could. Neither of them had had a choice, which was what hurt. When more than four weeks have passed, Koschei starts to wonder if he and Theta will ever be together that way again - starts to wonder if that’s perhaps for the best, despite how he misses feeling her lithe form against him, being connected with her in the deepest way, his body hot and aching when he thinks of her at night. 

Until he lays tossing restlessly in his bed one night, sweat-damp sheets shoved off in a tangle to the side, the moons high in the sky outside when he feels a familiar tingle in his mind. 

_Contact._

_Contact,_ he replies, hearts leaping with joy at the feeling of Theta’s mind wrapping around his own. _What’s wrong, are you alright?_

 _Can’t sleep,_ she tells him.

 _Me either_. 

There’s a pause - he can hear that she’s thinking but she won’t let him catch the specific thoughts. 

_Come here?_ She finally asks, and Koschei is out of bed, hauling on his clothes before he’s even answered. 

She is naked when he slips beneath the sheets of her bed with her, and she winds herself around him, thigh slipping over his hips as she kisses him with a whimpering sigh that sounds a little like a stifled sob.

“Koschei,” She whispers, later, when he is as bare as she and he lays on his back with her draped over him, four hearts still beating rapidly and his body humming pleasantly in the aftermath of their shared pleasure. “Promise me something?”

“Anything,” he says.

“Give me another one,” she whispers, and he inhales sharply, immediately knowing what she’s talking about. She sniffs quietly, and he turns his head to stare into hazel eyes filled with tears, hearts pounding as she continues. “Not - not now - not here. Sometime, in the future when we’re away and it’s safe. Promise me we can have another one to live where this one had to die…”

He is crying too when he pulls her into his arms, pressing a fierce kiss to the top of her head. 

“I promise,” he tells her, “I promise we will.”


	8. Chapter 8

Her small hand tight around his, the tiny girl marches Koschei across the playground, fury emanating from every inch of her diminutive form. 

“Theta!” He complains, “I don’t wanna apologise!”

“Tough,” she snaps, dragging him after her. He could dig his heels in if he really wanted but for some reason, Koschei sighs and lets her tow him over to the other side, pulling him to a stop in front of a little boy who sits crying on the ground in front of the shattered remains of what had been a carefully built little castle. 

“Well,” Theta says, dropping Koschei’s hand and folding her arms. 

Koschei huffs.

Theta had been ignoring him. 

They’d been at school together for just shy of a year, and ever since they’d met on the first day, they had spent every single lunch and playtime together, and most of their free time outside of school whenever they were permitted to too. But today was different. Theta had got to school early before him that morning, and apparently found a little nest of water ants down near the pond at the edge of the school playground. She’d shown it to him eagerly when he found her, but Koschei wasn’t all that interested in bugs. Horrible things. Theta however, was fascinated by them, and had spent the entire morning’s breaktime poking around in the nest with a tiny stick, completely ignoring Koschei as he tried to get her to come away and play with him, and now it was lunch time and she’d been over there  _ again _ . 

He’d sat on the ground next to her for a bit, whining about how bored he was, but Theta had simply told him to go and do something else if he was that fed up. 

What else was he supposed to do? 

It wasn’t like he could just go and play with some of the other children; he didn’t  _ like _ anybody else. He’d been at a loss. He had even found an especially deep red coloured grass beetle and caught it in his hands, bringing it over to her in an attempt to distract her from the ants, but she hadn’t been impressed, shrugging and declaring that red ones were really common. 

He’d stalked around the edge of the playground irritably, kicking at stones with his little shoe, annoyed and bored out of his mind, when he’d come across a small boy from one of the other classes building a ridiculous looking structure of some sort out of mud, stones and sticks. 

So Koschei had smashed it up. 

Really - he’d done the boy a favour; the proportions of the doors and windows had been laughably wrong and the turrets on the top were wonky. It turned out that wasn’t how Theta saw it though, when he wandered back over to her and told her what was so amusing when she asked why he was grinning. 

“Koschei has something to say.”

Theta gives him a firm shove towards the little boy on the ground in front of his ruined castle who’s looking up at them with tear stained cheeks. Koschei looks back at Theta with a scowl and she scowls right back and folds her little arms.

Koschei gives an irritated huff and folds his own arms.. “I’m… sorry.”

“He’s really sorry,” she laments. “And we’re going to help you build it again.”

“We are!?” Koschei splutters as Theta shoves past him and drops down to the floor next to the boy. She shoots him a glare and he gives another huff and drops reluctantly to the floor next to her.

“Yeah, we are,” he grumbles, reaching for a small rock.

It doesn’t take long to rebuild the stupid castle with three of them working on it - when they are done it looks better than it had before anyway, so if anything, Koschei thinks the snivling child should thank him. 

“Sorry again,” Theta tells her new friend (of course, she’d made friends with him) as she gets to her feet and brushes her hands off. Koschei stands up next to her and she elbows him. “Aren’t you?”

“Yes, sorry” he sighs, rolling his eyes and letting Theta take his hand and tow him away. She spends what little remaining break time they have lecturing him about it, and when school finishes for the day she has apparently forgotten all about her water ants, having got the idea that she and Koschei should build a bigger mud and rock castle of their own. 

“I know the perfect place!” She says excitedly, dragging him off into the woods near their school that they often played in. “And we can make a draw bridge and dig a moat around it so nobody else can get in!” She gasps, turning to face him as she skips along backwards. “It can be our tardis!”

“Tardises don’t look like castles, silly,” Koschei tells her. 

“They can! You can make them look like anything you want.”

“A castle is too big. The whole point of them is to blend in.”

“I don’t care.” She sticks out her tongue at him before turning and racing off. “Come on!”

Koschei shakes his head fondly as he watches his friend go.

This was much better. His best friend, playing with him, how it was meant to be. He grins as he breaks into a jog to catch up with her. 

And he only had to cause a little destruction to make it happen. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How else would he get her attention? ;)
> 
> I know this one was really short but hopefully you enjoyed it anyway, a little reprieve from all that angst I posted yesterday 😅


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Master is back on sunday who's excited!! Me!! I am!! That's why I'm posting fic instead of sleeping right now eeeeee

She’s on her stomach, with a couple of pillows Koschei had slid beneath her hips propping them up, knees spread wide and pressed into the mattress and sheets fisted in her hands as he moves within her. One of his hands is braced beside her on the bed and the other strokes over her neck and shoulders, fingers carding through sweat-damp blonde hair.

_ So good,  _ Theta tells him inside their minds as she moans deliriously, her whole body singing with pleasure.

_ Yeah?  _ He replies, voice husky and hoarse with pleasure even in their heads.  _ Do I feel good love? My cock feel good inside you? _

_ So good my love,  _ she moans back,  _ you feel so good, I love you inside, I feel so full... _

She feels his hand grip her hair, tugging a little, hips pumping into her quicker and smiles into her pillow, knowing how her words affect him. 

_ Harder,  _ she speaks into his head,  _ do it harder - yes!  _ “Yeah, there,  _ there - oh! Koschei!” _

She only realises she’s switched to rambling out loud when Koschei’s hand slaps over her mouth as he shushes her.

_ Theta - Theta you have to be quiet baby,  _ he tells her urgently, voice strained as he moves within her.

_ Sorry,  _ she gasps into his mind as he moves his hand from her mouth and grips her shoulder as he speeds up a bit, chasing both their releases.

_ Pull my hair again,  _ she begs, panting, little puffs of air leaving her as she presses her face into the pillow to muffle her moans,  _ I liked it.  _

_ Yeah?  _ Koschei says, wrapping a fistful of her hair around his hand and clenching tight.  _ You like this? Like it rough huh?  _

_ Yes! Rassilon - Koschei, I’m gonna -  _ “Ah! Oh my -  _ Kosch - mmph!” _ His hand covers her mouth again as her climax grips her, and she moans and moans into his palm, feeling her whole body contract and quiver around his, sheets twisted in her hands, head spinning as Koschei’s hips snap faster into hers. 

He shouts her name in their minds when he reaches his own release, and Theta lays boneless and delirious beneath him, feeling herself shudder with aftershocks of pleasure as Koschei empties himself inside her before collapsing down on top of her with a groan of satisfaction. 

“Uff - heavy,” she mumbles, and Koschei chuckles into the back of her neck, dropping a kiss there and making to pull out and move off her when a voice sounds from outside that makes both their stomachs drop -

“Koschei? You in? What was all that shout-”

It happens so fast. The door Theta had been  _ sure  _ they’d locked bursts open, a boy from their class whose room was across the hall appears in the doorway and all three of them gasp, Koschei leaping from her so fast he tumbles off the bed and to the floor with a thud and a yelp in a tangle of bedsheets. 

He scrambles to his feet, throwing the covers over Theta and grabbing his trousers from the floor as the boy stares at them, face a picture of horrified shock. 

“Oh my - what - what are you -” He stammers, gaping at them. “Oh gods.  _ Gods _ . You two were - you were  _ actually _ -”

“Kal, listen to me -” Koschei tries, trousers clutched in front of him as he holds the other hand out. 

“No,” he’s shaking his head, backing up, “This is - this is sick - please tell me this isn’t what I -”

“It’s not!” Theta squeaks from the bed, sitting with the covers held up to her chin as she frantically tries to comes up with a plausible excuse for their compromising position.

“It’s - I’m - Koschei was - h-he was giving me a backrub,” she tries, her hearts pounding. 

“Yes!” He chimes in, “She hurt her back in sports last week and -”

“No!” Kal exclaims, shaking his head, his face as red as theirs, “I’m not - I’m not an  _ idiot _ \- I knew there was something off about you two! Everyone says it you know!”

Theta and Koschai glance at each other, his dark eyes mirroring her panic. 

“Kal -“ Koschei tries again, “just - just let me talk to you alright I can explain -“

“Explain what!? How you’re - you’re making young like  _ animals _ do!?”

“That’s not what we’re doing!” Theta blurts out. 

“We’re not making  _ children  _ \- will you listen to yourself,” Koschei hisses, “that’s ridiculous - what would we want with a bloody child!?”

Theta catches his eyes again and she must have looked stricken, because Koschei’s eyes widen before his gaze softens and he snaps it away, clearing his throat. 

“Look we just -“

“No,” Kal interrupts, backing away into the corridor. “I don’t know what this is, but it’s wrong. You’re sick, both of you!”

“Kal!”

The bang echos after their classmate slams their door and leaves them alone, and her and Koschei stare numbly at it for a moment before he curses and starts pulling on his clothes.

“Oh… oh gods,” Theta whispers.

“I can fix this,” Koschei says determinedly.

She snaps her gaze over to him. “How!? He - he knows he’s going to tell everyone - they’re going to throw us out of the academy - they’re going to throw us in  _ prison _ Koschei - oh my gods,” she’s breathing fast, starting to hyperventilate, “there was that story about that married couple they executed when the guard found them in the citadel together one night -”

“Theta - calm down! That story’s not true, you can’t get the death penalty for this - and listen, nothing’s going to happen -”

“How can you say that! You saw how shook up he is he’s going to tell!” She cries. 

“He’s not. Don’t worry,” Koschei says shortly as he throws a shirt on, buttoning it hastily. 

“Don’t  _ worry _ !? We just -”

“Theta,” he says, and leans over to press a fierce kiss to the top of her head. “I’m going to fix this.  _ Don’t worry.” _

“How!? Koschei!” 

He doesn’t reply as he hurries from the room, just turns to wink at her from the doorway before slipping out and closing it behind him. Theta slumps down, both her hearts going mad in her chest and a thousand worries swirling around her head. 

It’s only after she’s hastily and numbly pulled all her clothes back on and sits back down, that something occurs to her that makes her hearts skip a beat and her blood run cold. 

How  _ did _ Koschei plan on stopping their classmate from telling everyone? How could he? Kal had seen them, and he knew what they’d been doing, she doubts anything Koschei could say would persuade him to keep it to himself - not something like this. So how was he going to stop him? 

There would be only one sure way to keep him quiet forever, and the thought that occurs to Theta is a horrifying one, but what’s even more horrifying is that she can’t dismiss it as ridiculous. She’d witnessed Koschei’s lack of empathy before - his temper. Sometimes she can see something swirling in those dark eyes of his that chills her to the bone. She finds it exciting as much as frightening - it’s probably why she’s always been so drawn to him, but now she sits in his room with her hearts pounding, for the first time truly contemplating what he would really be capable of. How far would he go to protect their secret? To protect her?

She has to find him - now. 

Just as she leaps off the bed and makes for the door, it swings open again, and Koschei himself slips back inside. 

“Koschei,” she breathes, eyes wide. “What -”

“It’s alright, we’re alright,” he tells her, seizing her by the shoulders and planting a firm kiss on her lips. He is grinning when he pulls back, and his elation knocks Theta so off track she loses her words for a moment. “He won’t tell anyone - I told you I’d fix it - what?” His face falls. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Theta gives herself a shake, swallowing hard. “Koschei… please tell me you didn’t… didn’t…”

“Didn’t what?” He frowns.

She searches his eyes with her own, dark brown orbs looking back at her questionably. 

“Koschei,” she whispers, dread in her voice, “you didn’t… kill him, did you?”

“What!?” He splutters, eyes wide, “No! Of course I didn’t  _ kill him  _ \- Theta what the -”

“Oh gods,” she breathes in relief, throwing her arms around him. “Wait,” she pulls back, coming down off her tiptoes to look at him with wide eyes, “Then how - how did you stop him from telling? Did you hurt him?”

“No!” He frowns. “Well - maybe a little - but it’s fine, he’s fine!”

“Koschei,” she growls, “What did you -”

“I erased his memory.”

She gapes at him. “You  _ what!?” _

“Just the walking in on us bit!” He assures her, hand out. He lets out a laugh; relieved, breathless… a little giddy. “It was… it worked Theta! It was  _ amazing -  _ it felt -“

“Koschei!” She gasps in horror, “you can’t do that!”

He smirks at her - actually  _ smirks _ , “I just did.”

“You - you can’t mess with people’s minds like that - do you know what you could have done to him if it went wrong!?”

“But it didn’t, Theta. I did it. Isn’t that amazing? We’re not supposed to have those capabilities for another century at least but I just - I was there in front of him and it was like I could  _ feel it _ \- the memory, the vision of us as he’d opened the door - like it was so tangible I could just reach out and take it… so I did.” He grins at her and waggles his eyebrows. “Pretty impressive right?”

Theta scowls and the smile drops from his face. 

“You’re not impressed?”

“Koschei what you did was so dangerous! Not to mention the fact that you’re  _ never _ supposed to mess with another timelord’s head!” She hisses, disbelief in her voice. 

“And as you keep reminding me, we’re  _ not _ timelords yet.”

“That doesn’t matter! Things like that - wiping people’s  _ minds _ , that’s… serious stuff. It’s horrible!”

He frowns at her. “You’re not… even a little bit glad he won’t remember it?”

Theta bites her lip. Of course she was.  _ Of course _ . But that didn’t make what Koschei had done okay. 

“You are,” he’s grinning now, and she curses herself for letting him see the relief on her face, “I knew you would be - I fixed it. I fixed it for us.”

“Koschei,” she says, shrugging out of his arms when he tries to take her in them. 

“Come on,” he says, still smiling as he catches her by the hand and tugs her back into his chest. He leans in, pressing his lips to her neck. “You’re a little bit impressed right?” He murmurs, low and soft by her ear and a warm tingle goes down Theta’s spine. 

“I’m…”

“You can admit it,” he nips at her skin and her eyelids flutter, “I won’t tell.”

“Who would you tell?” She huffs, and he chuckles, kissing her throat. She pushes at him, twisting out of his hold. 

“I have to study,” she mumbles, head uneasy and confused. Koschei sighs. 

“Really?”

“Yes,” she nods, collecting her books from his desk in the corner. “I just… I just wanna forget about this. I’m gonna head to the library.”

Another sigh. “Fine. I’ll come with you,” he says, grabbing his bag, “I still need to finish that paper.”

“Oh good, then you can help me with mine,” she shoots him a smirk over her shoulder, unable to help falling back into easiness with him as they leave the room together. 

“Oh you mean, basically write it for you again? Because I know you haven’t started.”

“I have!” She exclaims, and rolls her eyes when she sees him looking at her with a pointed expression. “Fine I wrote the title.”

“Did you write your name too?”

“Yes, I did actually!”

“Well there you go, you’re almost there! It’s a pass for sure.”

“Shut up,” she huffs, elbowing him with a laugh as they head towards the library together. 

\--

“Theta?” It’s much later, in the dark of his room with only the moons shining through the window for light and both of them bundled up safe in his bed together.

“Hmm?” She asks sleepily. 

“Did you seriously think I could have killed Kal?”

Theta bites her lip in the dark. She considers assuring him that no, she had just been panicked and frantic with worry and it had made her jump to ridiculous conclusions. But it would be a lie. 

She rolls over to face him. 

“Yeah,” she whispers, “I did.”

Koschei frowns and she reaches up to touch fingers that may shake a little to his hair, brushing it from his eyes. 

“There’s a darkness in you Koschei,” she murmurs softly; a little sadly. “There always has been. Sometimes it scares me a little.”

“Theta I’d never hurt you -” he begins, reaching for her.

“No, I know you wouldn’t,” she replies, catching his hand on her own and linking them between them. “I don’t mean that I’m scared  _ of  _ you. I’m… scared  _ for  _ you.”

He frowns again, and opens his mouth to protest.

“Think of what you did today,” she quickly continues, “Wiping Kal’s memory, without even stopping to  _ think _ whether it was wrong.”

Koschei frowns like he doesn’t understand. “But… if I hadn’t, he would have told somebody about us Theta, and you know how bad that would be.”

“I know but -”

“Tell me you wouldn’t have done the same.”

“I wouldn’t,” she answers immediately. 

“Wouldn’t you?” He’s frowning deeply at her now, pulling his hand from hers. “If you’d been in front of him, after he just walked in on us, and you could  _ feel _ the memory like I could - knew how damn  _ easy _ it would be just to pluck it out of his mind and make all our problems go away - tell me you wouldn’t have done that.”

Theta stares at him, mouth open. She frowns back. “I’m - I wouldn’t,” she shakes her head, no longer sure. 

He looks at her like he doesn’t believe her. “Tell me you’re not glad I did it. Properly think about it,” he quickly adds when she opens her mouth to answer. 

She looks back at him, thoughts swirling around her head. Of course… she was  _ glad _ the problem didn’t exist anymore - glad something that could have been catastrophic wasn’t going to happen… but that didn’t make erasing somebody’s memory right. 

Although… it was five minutes. It wasn’t like he’d lost any valuable time. And really, when she comes to think about it, taking the memory away from Kal was probably best for him too - it hadn’t been something he wanted to see. They weren’t something he could  _ understand _ . In the end, everything probably had worked out for the best. 

She sighs, breaking the intense gaze and shuffling closer to Koschei, tucking her head under his chin. 

“I’m glad,” she whispers, and she was. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was just gonna be a little smutty one, but then drama happened ?? I'm not in control of this story idk
> 
> Please do let me know what you think if you have time! And a reminder that I'm always open for prompts on this one since I'm not tied to any plot :) Send them here or dm me on twitter @_spoilersweetie - and my CC is linked on there too if you wanna send any anonymously :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little pointless one but I was missing this fic and needed to write something for them. Hope you enjoy anyway!

The suns are shining in the sky and a gentle breeze wisps through the red grass around them as the two young gallifreyans relax back against a couple of large trees, their thick leaves providing shade from the heat. School books are scattered around them and a few softly chirping birds their only company aside from each other.

“This is so  _ boring _ ,” Theta complains for the fifth time, scowling at the book in front of her. She has her back leant against a tree and her legs stretched out in front of her, shoes kicked off and socked feet resting against Koschei’s legs. He’s sitting against another tree that’s grown up right next to Theta’s one, side on to her. Whilst quite a trek out of the citadel, it’s been a favourite spot of theirs since they were children and they’d taken the opportunity of a free study day and hot sunshine to head out here to get away from the academy for the day. 

Koschei sighs, dropping his own book into his lap. 

“The exam’s in three days Theta. Once it’s over you don’t need to look at this stuff again.” 

“No, it’ll just be even more boring stuff for the next one. We’ve been studying all morning - can’t we do something else?”

Koschei glances up at the sky. “We’ve barely been here an hour,” he says. 

She huffs. “I don’t get any of this. I’m probably gonna fail anyway.”

“What don’t you get?” He holds his hand out for her book, “Let me see.”

She hands it over, sighing as she lets her head knock back against the tree, gazing up absently at the sunlight shining down through purple leaves. 

“It’s just formulas,” Koschei tells her, “You’re good at mathematics.”

Theta tilts her head as she squints up at the sunlight. “Do you ever think about what would happen if the suns rotations went out of synch?”   
“Theta,” he sighs. 

“Like what if they stopped rising and setting together? Then we’d never have nighttime. It could happen you know - the gravitational pull isn’t guaranteed to be fixed - it would only take something to throw it off a fraction, like a stray asteroid that spins too close or the temperature of one of them altering by half a degree -”

“ _ Theta. _ I can’t help you if you don’t pay attention to me!”

She drops her gaze back down to Koschei and smirks. “I can pay attention to you if that’s what you want,” she says, a mischievous twinkle in her eye as she lifts a foot, slipping it into his lap and stroking over his thighs. 

He fixes her with a glare. “Not what I meant and you know it. Look - do you want me to read out these formulas so you can memorise them?”   
“Mhm,” she says, wriggling her toes against his legs. 

“Okay, the first one is simple - x over y always equals half the original value of x multiplied by z which is a constant…”   
She lets his words drift around her as he speaks, much more interested in watching his face as she starts to steadily stroke his thigh with her foot. The touch is innocent at first, and Koschei drops a hand to rest on her shin as he speaks, but Theta becomes bored when he doesn’t react to her touch and just keeps reading out equations, and so she slides her foot further up his lap, nudging against his crotch. He gives a grunt of surprise and his eyes flicker to hers as she bites her lip cheekily, wiggling her toes against him before staring to stroke over him with her foot -

He grabs her ankle just as she feels him begin to harden against her socked foot, stilling her movements and shooting her a firm look.

“Theta,” he warns.

She grins at him.

“What?” She says, eyes dropping briefly to the bulge in his trousers. He clears his throat, shifting where he sits, and slips his hand beneath the loose fabric of her crop trousers, stroking a warm hand over her smooth shin. 

She bites her lip, looking over at him with heat in her gaze.

_ I want you _ , she projects inside their heads.

“Not here,” he says, sounding as disappointed as she feels.

“Let’s go back then.”

“Already? But it’s not even midday - and we’re supposed to be studying.”

“We can study later.” She wriggles her foot in his lap but he grips her shin, keeping it from reaching its destination. 

“Theta…”

She pouts at him.

He caresses her leg where his hand is still resting on it just beneath the hem of her trousers, warm fingers slipping round under her calf and Theta feels warmth spread through her body. 

_ Take them off, _ she offers with a smirk on her lips and twinkle in her eye and Koschei looks over at her pointedly.

“You do know we’re technically in a public place.”

“Maybe I don’t care,” she flirts.

“Hmm well maybe  _ I  _ care if somebody walks by and sees you naked.”

“Why? Don’t like sharing me?” She teases, tongue between her teeth. Koschei’s hand tightens on her leg and his nails dig in a little. 

“No.”

The low growl and dark intensity in his eyes sends a shiver through Theta’s whole body, and she bites her lip, eyes dropping to his mouth hungrily.

“Stop it,” he warns immediately.

“I didn’t say anything.” She grins innocently.

“We’re supposed to be studying.”

“You started it.”

“ _ You  _ started it.”

“Well you continued it stroking my leg like that.”

“I'm just resting my hand here,” he claims, although his fingers are still tracing feather light patterns over her calf.

“Mhm, and I was just resting my foot in your lap.”

“That wasn’t my lap.”

“Hmm I did think it felt a bit hard.”

“Thanks to you.”

“Don’t know what you mean.”

“Are you going to come over here and kiss me or am I going to have to gag you to shut you up?”

“Thought we were meant to be studying,” she grins as she swings her legs round so she’s kneeling and crawls over.

“We can study later,” Koschei says, tossing the book on his lap to the floor and reaching out for her hips as Theta glances round quickly to ensure they’re alone before swinging a leg over his hips and settling astride him. 

He groans deeply when she leans in and kisses him, the guttural noise telling Theta that their playful banter was winding him up just as much as it was her. She slants her mouth against his, stroking her tongue along his own and arching her back as she presses herself against him. 

_ Rassilon - you feel good _ , he tells her as they kiss.

_ Mutual,  _ Theta moans inside their minds as she moans out loud too. Her hips start moving of their own accord as their tongues move against each other, and fairly soon she finds herself grinding rhythmically in his lap, dragging her core over the hard bulge in Koschei’s trousers.

She breaks from his mouth to gasp as he bucks up into her and she feels him nudge right against her clit, and she clings to his shoulders, pressing her forehead to his as she rides him. 

“Should - not be doing this - here,” he pants out, his hands tight on her hips doing nothing to discourage her as they slide round to grip her backside, squeezing her as she moves.

“We’ve still got our clothes on,” she reminds him, equally as breathless.

“Yes but what we’re doing isn’t - exactly - innocent…”

“Maybe we just fancied a cuddle,” she smirks, picking up speed, eyelids fluttering as she gets the pressure of him just right against her clit and grinds down harder.

“A very -  _ oh -  _ stimulating cuddle,” he says, hands squeezing her again, pulling her down hard against himself.

Theta grins, gasping against his open mouth as she feels a heated pressure start to build steadily in her core. It feels so good as she grinds against him that she doesn’t pause to think as she chases that heat, nails digging into the back of Koschei’s neck where sweat is starting to build and back arched as she moves. 

She can hear the hum of Koschei’s thoughts in her head, in that familiar way they start to swirl and merge when pleasure floods their minds and order breaks down.  _ Theta - good - love - yes -  _ are just some of the words she catches, and she projects her own pleasure back at him, moving faster, hearts beating rapidly in her chest. 

One of his hands moves from her backside round between them and up underneath her shirt, splaying over her stomach, feeling the clench of her abdominal muscles as she rides him and then round to her ribs and up over her chest. When he takes one of her small breasts in his hand and squeezes, Theta almost shrieks, body shuddering and eyes squeezing shut as she grinds down against him furiously, breaking apart just a few seconds later with his name gasped over and over against his mouth. 

Body going still, Theta tilts her head and kisses him again, moaning her appreciation into his mouth as she trembles lightly on top of him. 

_ Did you finish?  _ She asks. 

_ No _ . 

She starts moving again as she kisses him, but Koschei breaks away from her mouth and takes hold of her hips, stilling her. 

“I can’t Theta. I’ve got to stay in these trousers all day,” he says, with a hint of a flush on his cheeks. 

She bites her lip, wishing she had thought of that too when she wriggles on top of him a bit and feels how wet she is herself now. 

“Let’s just do it properly then,” she murmurs, reaching for his trousers. His hands still her own. 

“It’s too risky.”

She slumps with a sigh, knowing he was right and both of them getting half naked out here would be stupid. Her eyes light up and she grins at him before shifting in his lap, nudging his legs apart so she can kneel between them instead and shuffling down so she can unbutton his trousers, eyes flickering up to his with a smirk.    
“Theta, what are you -  _ oh _ ,” he says as she leans down over him. His hands go to her hair and grip tightly as she starts to move her head. “That works,” he groans. 

\--

“And if y was five hundred and eight, then x would equal?”

Theta narrows her eyes, thinking quickly. “Forty two point four.”

“Perfect,” Koschei says. “You’re gonna do fine.”

“Hope so,” Theta sighs. Her hand is slipped into his as they stroll back in the dusk light, books tucked under their other arms. “What?” She says when she notices that Koschei is smiling as they walk.

He shoots her a grin. “Just thinking that I’ve found out how to make you study anyway.”

“Huh?”

He wiggles his eyebrows at her and she huffs out a laugh, rolling her eyes. “Shut up.”

“Never seen your concentrate so well as you did this afternoon,” he continues and she elbows him. “When you pass you can put it down to my -“

“Koschei!” 

He laughs, turning to press a kiss to the side of her head.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a lot of italics in here and it always goes weird with the spacing on them when I copy and paste onto here and I'm absolutely not going through and correcting every single one so... just sorry in advance if the formatting is a bit of a mess haha. 
> 
> Also sorry that this is basically just smut, I couldn't think of anything to write but I missed these babies so here we are

_Contact._

_Contact,_ Theta answers, closing her eyes and enjoying the familiar warmth of Koschei’s mind merging with hers as she lays in bed in her room at the academy. 

_Still awake?_

_Mhm,_ she replies, feeling where he’s spread out across his own bed a few hallways from her. _You too obviously._

 _Can’t sleep,_ she feels Koschei sigh.

 _Me either,_ she admits. _Too stressed about the exam tomorrow._

 _You’ll be fine,_ he tells her.

 _I won’t,_ Theta argues, _I’m no good in exams, you know that. I don’t know how anyone is supposed to focus on one thing for two hours in the dead quiet._

 _I’ve seen you focus on one thing for hours before,_ he replies, and Theta feels her face and body heat up at the teasing lilt to his tone. 

_Hmm, well unfortunately for me there’s no exams on_ **_that._ **

_You’d ace them if there was,_ Koschei replies cheekily and Theta finds herself grinning in the dark of her room. She flops over onto her side, burrowing into her duvet.

_I wish you were here._

_Why?_

_You know why._

_Oh, is that the only reason you want me around?_ He teases, _I see how it is._

 _Stop it,_ she laughs and hears him chuckle in her head before a comfortable quiet settles between them. She’s aware of his breathing, steady and even and if she concentrates hard enough she can hear the soothing double beat of his hearts too. She thinks of him, reclined back on his bed, dark hair tousled and eyes hooded as he looks at her in the dark and she _really_ wishes he were here again. She squirms, biting her lip as familiar want stirs to life inside her.

 _You alright?_ Koschei asks, clearly having sensed her discomfort.

 _Mmm,_ she replies, _just… missing you._ She bites her lip. _Can you sneak over?_

She hears him sigh. _I really, really wish I could, but you know neither of us will get any sleep if I do that and we really need some rest before tomorrow. Besides they’re keeping watch in the halls outside our rooms tonight. Apparently a couple of the boys have been sneaking out to go into the citadel so there’s no chance of me getting past them._

Theta huffs, pouting in the dark. 

_You’ll see me in the morning_ , he nudges, and she knows she must be projecting her disappointment.

 _There won’t be any time in the morning._ She’s grumbled the thought before she can stop herself and can feel Koschei’s amusement. 

_So that_ **_is_ ** _the only reason you’re missing me._

 _It’s not the only reason!_ She insists, blushing in the dark of her room when she hears the smirk in his words. _But I do want that. You,_ she confirms, _I want you. We’ve both been so busy studying, it’s been ages._

_I know._

She sighs, flopping over onto her back and trying to ignore the way her body was burning, breath coming out short and a familiar ache between her thighs that only Koschei could soothe. She pushes it into his head, letting him feel her need for him and getting a hoarse groan in response. 

_What if…_ Koschei hesitates before continuing the thought. _What if we just pretend we’re together._

Theta frowns in confusion. _What do you mean?_

 _Tell me,_ he urges, _tell me what you’d be doing right now if I was in bed with you._

Theta feels her hearts speed up, the burn between her legs intensifying as she bites her lip.

_What do you think?_

**_Explain it_ ** _to me._

Koschei’s voice is horse and full of want and the very idea of what he’s getting at has Theta suddenly very hot beneath her covers. She pushes them away, letting the air cool her sweating form. She swallows, body thrumming with adrenaline.

 _I’d kiss you first,_ she tells him. _Because I love the way you kiss me. I love feeling your tongue in my mouth._

She hears Koschei groan through their connection. 

_I’m on top of you,_ he tells her, voice low and filled with heat. _One hand buried in your hair while you moan into my mouth…_

She gasps, back arching against the mattress. _I love it when you touch my hair._

_I know._

_I’m spreading my legs,_ she tells him breathlessly, _wrapping them round you so I can pull you closer._

 _That’s it,_ he hisses encouragingly in her mind, _can you feel me now, pressed against you? I’m so hard for you already._

Theta moans, whole body aching for his, almost feeling him here on top of her like they were imagining. 

_Yeah_ , she breathes, _yeah I can feel you - I want you inside. I need you inside of me -_

 _So impatient,_ he chuckles, _I need to undress you first - I want you bare beneath me._

 _Want to feel your skin against mine,_ Theta agrees urgently.

 _Take your top off,_ he tells her suddenly, _it’s me, pulling it over your head, bending down so I can kiss your bare chest -_

 _Koschei!_ She gasps, arousal shooting through her hot and urgent as she yanks her sleep shirt over her head like he says and feels her nipples harden in the cool of the room. 

_That’s it love,_ Koschei growls, _bottoms next, my mouth moving down over your stomach and your hips -_

 _You too,_ she tells him, wriggling the rest of her clothes off, lost in what was happening as she flops back, naked, and finds a hand trailing up over her body. 

_Touch your chest for me,_ Koschei breathes into her mind, and Theta bites down hard on her lip as she moves her hand up to do as he says, squeezing her breast like he often does, closing her eyes to imagine her hand is his own as she circles the pads of her fingertips around a pebbled nipple. 

_I can feel you_ , she tells him softy, _love it when you touch me here._ She squirms as Koschei moans into her head, feeling herself throb between her legs. _Need you_ , she tells him, panting where she lays alone in her bed. _Need you kissing my neck, telling me you want me as you move your hand down to touch me._

 _I want you_ , Koschei says, and Theta lets out a whimper. _Touch yourself like I would._

She is hot and slippery beneath her fingers when she slides them down between her thighs, and Theta bites her lip as she glides curious fingers over herself. _And - and you_ , she nudges, and feels Koschei smile - gasps a little as he briefly lets her feel his end of their shared pleasure. 

_Already ahead of you, love._

The image of Koschei, her Koschei spread out naked in his bed with his own hand wrapped around himself is a powerful one, one that makes Theta whimper and spread her legs, hips surging up into her own hand as she imagines walking into his room like that, shedding her clothes as she walks over to his bed, sitting down on top of him and taking him inside… 

_Rassilon, you’ll kill me,_ Koschei suddenly says into her mind and she smiles, a little surprised to find she’d been projecting all those thoughts accidentally. He always could make her lose her senses - even when he wasn’t physically here, it seemed. 

_Have you done this before?_ He asks her suddenly. 

_Hm?_

_Touched yourself._

_No,_ she replies, _have you?_

_… A couple of times._

_Really?_

_Mmm. When you haven’t slept in my bed and I’ve_ ** _missed_** _you..._

_Does it work?_

_Work?_

_Yeah. Like - you know how you can’t tickle yourself? Could you finish by yourself?_

_Yeah,_ she can hear him chuckling, _it works, Theta. Doesn’t it feel like it working right now?_

 _Yeah,_ she laughs quietly in her own bed, body growing hotter by the minute, _yeah it does._ She bites her lip, thinking of Koschei, laying in his bed in the dark, his own hand clasped around his cock just like she touches him, winding himself up tighter as he thinks of her, finally spilling out over his hand...

 _Will you let me watch?_ She blurts out into their minds.

_Hm?_

_The next time we’re together. Will you let me watch you like this?_

There’s a pause, and she hears Koschei’s hearts racing. _Only if you’ll let me watch you at the same time,_ he finally replies, and Theta gasps, feeling herself twitch and grow wetter against her fingers.

 _Oh - you liked that didn’t you?_ She can hear Koschei smirking through his words and gives a breathless huff of laughter, rolling her eyes. 

_Shut up._

_Never._ He smirks. _Tell me how it feels_. 

Theta bites her lip, body growing warmer. _Can’t you feel?_ She breathes, projecting her own reality into his mind. It’s difficult, and it makes her head hurt, but she’s rewarded with a gasp followed by a groan, and Koschei’s low voice breathing her name. 

_Stop,_ he murmurs, _you’ll hurt yourself._

Closing that part of her mind off, Theta slumps back, panting. Adrenaline is coursing through her, and she moves her fingers quicker against herself, toes curling into the bedsheets. 

_Worth it._

_Describe it to me instead._

_Hot. Wet. Slippery beneath my fingers._ **_So_ ** _wet…_ She emphasises, smiling when she hears Koschei groan into her head. It had been weird at first, and a little alarming at the very beginning, how wet he could make her, but they’d quickly realised that it was just her body’s way of preparing itself in the same way Koschei grew hard beneath her touch (or sometimes just from a look). It was good. It meant she wanted him. And right now she really, _really_ wants him. 

_Put your fingers inside love,_ Koschei tells her, and Theta moans out loud as she does as he asks, pressing two fingers carefully inside of herself. 

_Feels so good_ , she tells him. 

_Are you imagining it’s me?_

_They feel a little small to be you._

She hears his laugh in her mind and smiles. 

_How many fingers?_ He asks her. 

_Two._

_Use three._

Theta’s eyelids flutter, back arching as she pushes a third finger inside herself. 

_How about now?_

_You still feel better._

He doesn’t reply but she feels smugness reverberate inside her mind and grins. 

_Tell me,_ she says, pressing her fingers deeper, _tell me what we’re doing now._

_I’m inside you…_

_I got that bit._

_Cheeky. I’m kissing your neck as we move together, listening to you gasp in my ear… - yes, like that._

_Koschei,_ Theta moans in his head, feeling herself quiver around her fingers. _I’m - you feel so good inside me. Your body pressed against me. Gods, I wish I was kissing you right now…_

_You are._

She gives another moan and hears Koschei do the same. She can feel her body winding up tightly, barrelling towards that moment of bliss only Koschei has ever made her feel.

 _I bet you look so incredible right now_ , she hears him say, the words hoarse, spilling out into her mind more like a stray thought than a conscious projection. The idea makes her gasp, back arching.

 _Next time_ , she reminds him. The hot promise prompts a moan, and then she can hear him panting in her mind, uttering her name over and over.

_Theta - are you -_

_Mhm, yeah,_ she tells him quickly, licking her lips as she moves her fingers quicker, sheets clenched tightly in the other hand. _Almost. - Tell me,_ she begs him frantically.

 _Tell you what baby?_

_Tell me to finish. Please - I need -_

_I want you to fall apart for me,_ he utters into her mind, voice urgent and hot, _you look so beautiful when you do - feel so amazing the way you tighten around my cock -_

_Koschei!_

_Now, Theta._

As if he had flipped a switch, Theta’s body breaks apart at his words, her eyes rolling back in her head as she arches on the mattress, fingers pumping inside herself and head tossing from side to side as she curses and screams his name into their minds.

 _Shh, shh,_ he urges, knowing her well, and she bites down on her lip hard, dampening her moans just as she _feels_ the moment Koschei reaches his own climax, his voice horse as he cries out in her head. 

_Theta?_

It’s a couple of minutes later, and Theta is still panting as she lays amongst sweat-damp sheets, her hand still resting between her splayed legs. 

_Mmm?_

_Was that… okay?_

She grins, chuckling a little.

 _Yeah,_ she tells him. _That was way more than okay. Still prefer the real thing, but…_

She can feel him smiling, and reaches down to grab the covers, pulling them up over her rapidly cooling body. Her fingers are wet and she wrinkles her nose, wiping them on the sheets and making a mental note to do the laundry tomorrow. 

_And I could really go for a cuddle about now._

_Mmm,_ Koschie agrees, voice sounding lazy now. _Same._

 _Was it okay for you too?_ She asks him sleepily, curling onto her side and cuddling into her duvet instead. She’s suddenly too tired to bother with pulling her clothes back on. She doesn’t know where she tossed them anyway.

 _It was amazing,_ he tells her, and she smiles. _I’m holding you to that promise though. Next time I want to watch._

Theta grins. _Can’t wait._

_Suppose we should try and get some sleep._

_Yeah,_ Theta agrees. _No wait!_ She panics when he starts to break off the connection.

_Theta we have an exam tomorrow._

_I know, I just mean… can’t we stay like this? Until we fall asleep._

There’s a pause. _What if our thoughts tangle up while we’re asleep? I’ve heard of that happening if you sleep while you’re connected with someone._

She smiles wistfully. _Then maybe we’ll share the same dreams._

_It isn’t romantic Theta, it’s dangerous._

_Worth the risk._

She feels Koschei sigh through their link, and a long pause follows. _Yeah,_ he finally agrees, followed by another pause. _You are._

Theta falls asleep with a smile on her face, and her lazy thoughts intertwined with Koschei’s, weaving peace through her slumber.


	12. Chapter 12

She’d been handling it  _ fine _ . 

Everything was under control from Theta’s point of view, she wasn’t even worried - she’d have managed the situation just fine if he hadn’t come along and interfered, and if he hadn’t yelled out her name and distracted her, she would have seen the fist coming towards her face before it hits her squarely in the jaw, sending her reeling to the ground with a smack. 

“ _ Theta!” _

She blinks, a bit dazed as she rolls to the side and sits up, hand clamped to her face, and when she can focus again sees the blur of a figure throwing itself in front of her and hears a loud smack as two collide and go hurtling to the floor. 

She stares for a moment, trying to focus through the throbbing in her jaw as two figures roll on the ground in front of her. Koschei and her attacker - a wiry boy much younger than both Theta and Koschei, who’d been throwing rocks at nesting birds. In fairness, she probably could have dealt with the situation better than picking up a small rock of her own and hurling it at the boy’s head, but hindsight was a wonderful thing.

In any case, he’s probably half the mass of Koschei and it becomes quickly apparent who has the upper hand when Koschei pins him on his back and holds him there by the scruff of his neck, sending his other fist flying into his face.

He hits him over and over, and when his fist has connected with the boy’s jaw five times and Koschei’s yells only gotten angrier as the boy starts whimpering for mercy, Theta leaps into action.

“Koschei!” She exclaims, scrambling to her feet and grabbing his sleeve. “Koschei stop it!  _ Stop!”  _ He is rigid when she pulls at him, hitting him again and again. The boy’s face is a blooded mess and he’s crying out, arms trying to shield his head as Koschei punches him over and over. 

“That’s enough!” Theta cries, desperately trying to drag him off the boy. His fist connects with his face again and there’s a crack that’s almost certainly bone and a pitiful howl from the boy beneath him. Koschei still doesn’t stop, fist bloodied and bruised as the face he’s repeatedly hitting.

“Koschei you’re killing him!” Theta cries, and when he still doesn’t seem to heed her, she gathers all her strength and hurls her mind against his, forcing her way into his head as she reaches out and presses both hands to his temples and screaming his name inside the depths of his own mind.

_ Koschei stop! It’s over, you won, it’s alright,  _ she tells him frantically, projecting calmness and soothing thoughts even as her own two hearts race.  _ I’m here, I’m fine. You’re fine. Come back to me… Koschei? _

It’s a moment before he answers her, but his frantic attack ceases and he freezes, panting and trembling with the echos of the fury Theta can still sense coursing through him. 

_ He hurt you! _ She finally hears his voice in her head. She tightens her grip on his head, turning it to look at her where she kneels down next to him, forcing his wild dark gaze to her own.

“I’m okay,” she says firmly out loud, and loosens her grip on the sides of his face to brush fingertips over his sweating forehead, pushing dark hair back from his face. She smooths her thumbs over his cheeks, feeling the tremble of his body in her touch. “Just breathe.”

Koschei’s dark eyes search hers frantically for a few seconds, chest heaving as he pants for breath, until he visibly takes a deep one, and nods. His fist uncurls and he releases the boy’s shirt. 

He scrambles to his feet and away, which Theta supposes is a good thing - she wasn’t certain he was even still conscious after the blows Koschei had rained down on him. 

“Get, him,” Koschei growls, still panting, “ _ away.” _

Theta glances round to see the boy already scarpering, clutching at his ribs and hand pressed to his bloodied nose as he stumbles off as quickly as he can. She swallows hard, looking back at Koschei.

“He’s gone.”

She feels him relax fully, sinking down to sit on his heels on the ground, and Theta with him. 

She gives him a moment, letting him breathe, taking his hand in her own and inspecting the mess he’d made of his knuckles. 

When his breathing has begun to calm, she glances up into his face. “You alright now?”

Taking a deep breath, Koschei nods, and when his eyes flick to hers, the wild glint in them is gone. 

“Good,” Theta says, then she slaps him.

Probably not a wise move - striking a man she’d just watched nearly beat another to death, but Theta would never be afraid of Koschei.

“Ah!” He yelps in shock, clasping a hand to his pink cheek and staring at her in shock. “Wha -“

“You nearly killed him! I don’t need you defending me!”

“He hit you!” He exclaims, livid again. 

“Only because you distracted me - he was just a kid, I can take care of myself! I don’t need you fighting my battles for me Koschei.”

He scowls at her. “I just saved you.”

“I don’t need saving!” Theta snaps, turning away from him and wiping the blood from his knuckles off on the grass. Feeling her jaw still throb, she touches fingertips gingerly to her cheek.

After a pause she hears Koschei shift behind her.

“Let me see,” he reaches for her and she shrugs him off, shoving him away. 

“It’s  _ fine.” _

“You’re bleeding!”

“I said it’s fine!” She snaps, yanking out of his grasp when he tries to turn her round and clambering to her feet. 

“Theta,” she hears Koschei’s voice after a minute and him hurrying after her. “Theta!” He falls into step behind her as she marches back towards the academy. “I didn’t - I lost control of my temper okay, I didn’t mean to -“

“I’m not mad about that Koschei, I’m mad that you interfered in the first place!”

“But I -“

She cuts him off with a huff, halting and whirling to face him. “You always do this - jump in. I can take care of myself, you know that perfectly well, and I don’t like you getting into trouble over me.”

“But I just -“

“You want to protect me, I know. It’s been the same ever since we were little and that boy in our class pushed me over in the playground. You remember what happened, Koschei.”

He looks away, jaw tight. Koschei had been as little as she and the child who pushed her at the time, but that hadn’t stopped him grabbing him by the arm and throwing him to the ground, slamming his foot into his chest. He’d ended up in hospital with concussion and three broken ribs and all little Koschei had said when they found out was that he wished he’d broken all of them. He’d been suspended from school for a month and nobody would talk to him or Theta for many more after that. Theta decided then she didn’t want him getting into trouble over her - not that he’d listened over the years.

Now, Koschei looks away from her gaze, clenching and unclenching his fists at his side. “I just saw him hit you and saw red,” he tells her quietly. “Sometimes… it’s like something takes over, inside me. Something I can’t control.”

“Koschei,” Theta breathes, hearts aching for the haunted look in his eyes. She steps forward, reaching out to place a hand on his face. 

A long few seconds stretch out between them, and Theta counts the beats of their four hearts, sending soothing waves into his mind. Finally, Koschei swallows hard and lifts his gaze to hers, looking her in the eye. “It scares me Theta,” he admits quietly, and Theta’s lips part as she stares back at him. 

She steps in, sliding her arms around his middle and resting her head on his shoulder. She doesn’t know what to say at first, letting his words sink in and mulling over them quietly as she strokes his back and feels him wrap his own arms around her. After a minute, she lifts her head and moves back to look at him.

“You’re strong,” she tells him. “Stronger than whatever impulses try to get ahold of you. I know you are.”

A frown flickers across his face. “I almost didn’t stop back then - if you hadn’t have -“

“But you did. You did because you can.”

Koschei’s eyes glimmer with sadness. “Not without you.”

They stare at each other for a significant moment before Theta takes a breath, and smiles. “Lucky you’ll always have me then, isn’t it?”

He manages a small smile of his own, lifting a hand to brush back her hair. “Promise?”

“I promise,” Theta nods, “ _ always.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a few more little moments I want to write for these two, if anybody is still here reading them. Sorry this one was short, just trying to get myself back into writing after lacking a little motivation lately. Really hope you enjoyed it anyway! I've missed these two 🥺


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Needed to write some soft to counter the dark I've been writing a lot of lately so it was time to visit my fave baby timelords again 🥰

Hitched up on Koschei’s back, her legs dangling by his sides and her arms looped around his neck, Theta hums in thought as he walks with her. 

“Reactor particle?”

“Nope,” he replies. 

“Reactor belt?”

“No.”

“Recall calibrator?”

“You’re not even warm.”

She gives a sound of frustration. “Give me a clue.”

“You had a clue.”

“‘It’s small’ is hardly a clue! There’s ten trillion ‘small’ parts of a tardis engine!”

“Not all beginning with R though.”

She huffs, wracking her brains. “Reee...ally annoying person?”

He gives her a jolt on his back and she shrieks, clutching at his shoulders. 

“Give up?”

“No! I can get it…” She turns her head suddenly to nuzzle into Koschei’s neck as he walks, and feels his hearts skip a bit beneath her hands. She smiles, brushing her lips over his soft skin before kissing him there, humming softly, letting her tongue flick lightly over his skin - 

“Hey!” He dumps her unceremoniously off his back and she has to grab at him so as not to topple right down onto her backside. “I felt that!”

“What!?” She blinks back innocently. 

“No looking in my head, that’s cheating!”

Theta pouts prettily at him. “It was an accident. I was just thinking and I must have slipped through.”

“Yeah, yeah. You were distracting me so you could pull out the answer - I know you too well.”

She grins. “Well it _almost_ worked. I saw the first part of it.”

“And what’s that?” 

“Rep - ?” She narrows her eyes, thinking hard. Koschei watches her with an amused smirk on his face, refusing to help until she throws her hands up in the air. “Fine! I give up! Tell me because it’s driving me mad.”

“Repair manual.” He says smugly. 

“ _What!?_ That’s not - that’s not a tardis engine component!” She says, outraged. 

“I never said component. I said ‘something you’d find in a tardis engine room’.”

“You cheated!”

“I did not!”

“You did! Which means I won which means you have to carry me again.” She darts round to hop back up onto his back but Koschei dodges her. 

“Ah ah! I didn’t cheat. You just didn’t think outside of the box.”

“It was a trick question.”

“Was not!”

She pushes him lightly. “You’re so _annoying!”_

Koschei grabs her wrist and yanks her into him, kissing her quickly on the mouth. “Likewise, love,” he grins when he lets her go and she huffs and swats at him. 

“ _Fine_ . I’ll let you have this one,” she relents, folding her arms. “What do you want? I’m not carrying _you_ , you’re way too heavy.”

“Thanks,” he chuckles, throwing an arm around her shoulders. “And I’ll let you know later. When we get there.”

“When _are_ we gonna get there?” She says as they start walking down the little dirt path over the red hill again. 

“Soon,” Koschei says breezily. 

Soon turns out to be another hour of walking, and Theta is _tired_ and sweaty and more that a bit grumpy by the time they finally emerge from a patch of trees into a little clearing that breaks off into the bank of a river. Plummeting into the water over shining red rocks is a beautiful waterfall that catches the light of the suns and conjures dancing rainbows in its spray. All her irritation melting away, Theta gasps in delight, taking in the sight in front of her. 

“It’s beautiful!” Her eyes sweep the scene, and she notices a small tent set up a little further down the bank, a little campfire in front of it ready to be lit. “Is that -?”

“Brought it all here yesterday, while you were studying.” Koschei looks a little sheepish as he rubs at his head. “Just thought you’d like it here, and we have a couple of days free, I thought…”

Theta grins and jumps at him, kissing him elatedly on the mouth as he catches her, staggering back a bit, her legs going around his waist. “I _love it_ ,” she grins against his lips. 

“Yeah?”

“Yes,” she nods. “It’s beautiful. Perfect.”

“Well I thought it might be nice to cool down after our walk too…” He says. There is a devious, playful edge to his tone that Theta is too giddy to take note of. If she had, perhaps she would have noticed how he was walking forwards with her, over to the water’s edge…

“Yeah you are kinda sweaty,” she teases, running a hand through his hair.

“You like me sweaty,” he tells her cockily. “And besides so are you.”

“Well yeah but -”

Theta doesn’t get to finish her sentence, because Koschei has reached the edge of the river bank, and in one quick movement, dumps her right into the water. 

She gasps, spluttering as she surfaces. “ _Koschei!”_

He’s laughing aloud, doubled over where he stands on the river bank.

“I hate you!” She shouts, spitting out water and pushing soaked hair back off her face. “I’m in all my clothes!”

“I got you clean ones,” he chuckles as he kicks off his shoes and socks and starts unbuttoning his shirt. “Over in the tent.”

“That does not make it okay!” She fumes, treading water. He strips down to his underpants and then jumps in, splashing her and making her gasp again. When he surfaces, she dunks him, holding him down a little longer under water than is playful, irritated enough to push him. He’s gasping too when he surfaces, and Theta feels better about the situation. 

“I am _soaked_ ,” she complains, plucking at the wet top that clings to her. 

“Well you are in the water, love.”

“It wasn’t funny.”

“It was pretty funny.”

“Look!” She shakes out her dripping sleeve. “My clothes are ruined!” 

“We’d better get you out of them then,” Koschei suggests, swimming over to her. Theta rolls her eyes but lets him move them to a shallower part of the river where they can stand and peel her soaked garments from her body. The trousers cling to her legs beneath the water, and she has to awkwardly float on her back whilst Koschei yanks at them hard to get her free of them, and they’re both laughing by the time he’s done. She peels her underwear off beneath the water too and tosses it to land on the pile of wet clothes on the bank with a smack, raising an eyebrow at Koschei and glancing down pointedly until he rolls his eyes and removes his own too. 

“Don’t tell me skinny dipping isn’t the _exact_ reason you brought me here,” she teases at his expression. 

“I’m not,” he grins, catching her by the wrist and tugging her to him. She lets him kiss her before she slips out of his arms and swims away, splashing him as she goes. 

They play in the water until they’re both tired of chasing each other, and then Koschei takes her hand and swims with her over to the other side of the pool, by the rocks beside the waterfall. 

“Here,” he says, nudging at her. 

“What?”

He nods. “Up there. Go first, I won’t let you fall.”

Suddenly spotting the little gap Koschei was referring to that disappeared behind the spray of the water, Theta’s face lights up in a grin and she hauls herself out of the water, climbing carefully up the rocks with Koschei behind her. She slips into the gap with his hand on her back and finds herself in a small open cavern, the water streaming down providing a glassy curtain from the world laid out in front of them, the spray bouncing off the walls around them, sprinkling over their damp skin. 

Theta turns to beam at Koschei with delight, her eyes bright as he steps inside with her, and he pushes her against the slippery rocks, taking the breath from her lungs as he kisses her, deep and purposeful. 

Leaning back against the cool surface behind her, she loops her arms around his neck and moans softly, feeling the press of his wet body against hers, content to melt into every inch of him in their own little world here. 

After a moment of roaming hands and soft sighs growing into needy gasps, he hitches her knee up by his hip and Theta gasps again and clutches at his shoulders as he slides inside her. His breath is hot against her open mouth, and her eyelashes flutter against her cheeks as she breathes in, letting the sensations of his body against and inside her sweep her away. Her thoughts reach out to his on instinct, and their minds wrap around each other, tangling wordlessly together and filling Theta with that sense of _home_ being linked with Koschei like this always did. She loves him with both her hearts, and he her, so deeply it doesn’t need to be spoken out loud, instead Koschei presses it into her, lets her feel his love with every movement, and Theta sighs and tips her head back and says with the quickness of her breath and the beating of her hearts how she loves him in return. 

\--

When they finally emerge from the water, they lay side by side in the warm sun, watching clouds and chatting lazily until they were dry before changing into the clothes Koschei had stashed in the tent and starting the campfire. There was food in the bags too, and they eat contentedly before Theta drapes herself over Koschei’s lap and watches the dancing flames with him until a softly murmured suggestion in her ear draws them both into the total privacy of the tent. 

Now, Theta lays in the bundle of blankets next to him, listening to the quiet of the night outside and the steady drum of both of Koschei’s hearts as she wishes that every day could be like this. 

A thought occurs to her, and starts to niggle in her brain, louder and louder until she knows she has to voice it tonight. 

“Koschei?”

“Mmm?”

She bites her lip and fiddles with the light dusting of hair on his chest. He shifts a little to face her. “What is it, love?”

Theta takes a breath and looks up into his dark eyes. “Will you marry me?”

Koschei smiles easily. “Yeah.”

Her breath stutters a bit and she blinks. “Yeah?”

“Of course yeah,” he chuckles, pulling her closer and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Thought it was a given,” he mumbles. 

“Was it?”

“Yes, love,” he chuckles softly again, and runs his large hand down the smooth expanse of her bare back.

“Oh,” says Theta, and considers. “Well you never asked.”

“Yes I did.”

She lifts her head, pulling back enough in his arms to frown at him, bemused. “No you didn’t.”

“I did!”

“When!?”

His brow furrows in thought. “We were… I forget how old. A few years into school I think. We made a hut out of sticks in the woods and you said you wanted to live there when we were older and I said you’d have to marry me first.”

A burst of surprised laughter escapes Theta. “That’s not a proposal!” 

“Ah!” He points a finger at her, “that’s what you said then too! So then I asked you properly. I gave you a little daisy chain bracelet in promise too, I remember.”

Theta _does_ remember that afternoon now, remembers how full her little hearts had felt at the prospect of spending the rest of her life with her best friend, and how she had smiled for the rest of the day and told all her pet frogs when she got home. 

“Koschei,” she laughs. “We were children! That doesn’t count.”

“Why not? You said yes and you’ve never taken it back since.”

“I did say yes,” she agrees, propping her chin on her hand resting on his chest. “And I meant it then and I mean it now.”

“You can’t say yes this time, you asked me.” He pokes her in the side and she jumps and swats him. 

“You’re so annoying.”

“I try my best,” he says smugly and Theta huffs and rolls her eyes fondly. “And now, you know, I get to annoy you forever.”

“Ugh. What have I let myself in for?”

“A lifetime of me. Millenia. Thousands of years is a long time.”

“I’m regretting this already,” she teases, “Can I take it back?”

“Nope,” he grins, pulling her tight against him on top of him and wrapping both arms around her. “You’re stuck with me now. Cursed to the end of your days.”

“The curse of Koschei,” she embellishes.

“Yep,” he grins, and brings her lips down to his. 

Theta can think of worse things to be cursed with. 

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So did they ever actually get married? 👀


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This is short but I had the sudden and unusual urge to write some fluff so here you go. Also I just missed these two 🥺
> 
> I've avoided including much about their homes and families in this one so far, mostly because I don't have much classic who knowledge - but remembered that this is an AU so I'm free to make up what I want :P and I wanted to give them a bit more background. Also, I purposefully didn't name the holiday they're celebrating - they're aliens I doubt they share any with us so you can make up what you want for it :) I hope you like it!

She wasn’t exactly  _ welcome  _ in Koschei’s house. His father barely spoke two words to her, and his mother had disliked her ever since that summer many years ago when she’d stayed over for the first (and only) time. 

Her and Koschei didn’t understand it at the time, why when the older gallifreyan woman had found them curled up in bed together in the morning she’d screamed the house down. It had been innocent of course, neither of them mature enough for anything sexual to exist between them then, they had simply craved the closeness and contact of the other. But now, Theta wonders if Koschei’s mother hadn’t had a bit of foresight of what their relationship had the potential to develop into. She supposes looking back, it had been less of an overreaction as they’d believed it to be at the time. 

“Because she means a lot to me, mother, and I want you to get to know her!”

Theta cringes a bit where she sits outside on their little porch at Koschei’s answer. She suspects they don’t realise she can hear every word, and she picks a piece of red grass, fiddling awkwardly with it as she tries to no avail to tune out what they’re saying inside.

“I know enough about her to know that she’s bad news,” comes the biting reply, and Theta bites down on the inside of her cheek. 

It was fine. She  _ knew _ what everyone else on this damn planet thought of her. She knew she’d never fit in anywhere, never wanted to conform to what was expected of young gallifreyans, and she knew that meant that most of them didn’t understand her, and henceforth didn’t like her. It was fine.

“Isn’t she failing every one of her classes at the academy? I don’t want you spending your time with someone like that!”

“Not  _ all _ of them,” Theta hears Koschei answer through gritted teeth and feels a swell of fondness that he’s trying to defend her. She sighs, picking another piece of grass, and shredding it carefully in her restless fingers. “And it’s not because she isn’t clever - she is. She’s probably the cleverest one at the academy, she just has trouble concentrating and -”

“I don’t want to hear it. I’m not interested in Theta Lungbarrow and she’s not welcome in this home.”

There’s a stiff pause before Theta hears Koschei snap a “fine”, and then the sound of stomping feet inside. 

The door swings open, and she stands, brushing herself off. 

“It’s fine,” she forces a smile quickly before Koschei can say anything. He comes out of the house and jogs down the couple of porch steps to her side with a frustrated sigh, shoving a hand through his dark hair. 

“My mother… uh…”

Theta shakes her head, the smile frozen on her face. “It’s fine Koschei, honestly. I told you me coming home with you was a bad idea. I’ll just go back to the citadel for the holidays, I have a place or two I can go. Might take a tent out to the forest and spend some time camping. I really want to work on my star chart and that spot we spent the weekend at last year would be perfect, the stars were so clear up there…”

She’s rambling, a habit when she’s nervous or upset or uncomfortable, and Koschei knows it. He pulls her to him, wrapping his arms around her and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. 

“Just give me a few minutes to pack some things.”

Theta blinks where her cheek is pressed to his shoulder, and pulls back to look him in the eyes. “You’re… you’re not staying?”

“What?” His brow furrows as if in utter confusion. “Of course I’m not - why would I be staying without you?”

Theta’s jaw slackens. “Koschei…” she breathes, hearts pounding. “They’re your family… and this festival is a time for family to be together and it’s not like you get to see them often with us at the academy and you should -”

His mouth on hers cuts off her words, and Theta lets him kiss her into stunned silence for a few seconds before she hastily pushes him away. 

“Your house is right there, anyone could see!” She whispers frantically, cheeks red. 

“I don’t care. Kissing isn’t banned, just -”

“I know,” she cuts him quickly off. “But it’s not… your family hates me enough and it’s not like we  _ don’t _ … and we should really probably avoid giving them any reason for suspicion…” 

He reaches out to touch a hand to her face, tucking her hair behind her ear and cupping her cheek. “You always say you hate the way we have to pretend.”

She bats him off, stepping back away from him with a frown. “This is different Koschei,” she mutters quietly. “They’re your family.”

“But I don’t -”

Theta shakes her head, taking another step back, mind resolved. “You should stay with them for the festival.”

He snorts. “No, I’m coming back with you.”

“ _ No _ , Koschei.”

“Theta -”

“Look. My home life was… complicated, you know that. If I had a family who cared about me like yours do, I would want to spend the holidays with them. You should too - it’s not like we don’t spend all of the rest of the time together anyway. And besides,” she gives a casual shrug. “I like being alone sometimes.”

“You hate being alone.”

“How do you know?”

“Because you’ve told me,” he replies, arms folded. “Many times.”

She huffs and throws her hands up. “Well maybe it will do me good to try.”

“Theta you’re being ridiculous,” he tries to argue, reaching for her again. She dances away, shaking her head firmly. 

“I’m not. I wish I had a family to go home to for the festival but I don’t. You should spend it with the people you love. For me? Please?”

Koschei’s resolve visibly wavers at her words and her plea, and his dark eyes soften as his shoulders slump. 

“Please Koschei? I’ll see you again in less than a moon…”

He gives a great sigh, and nods. “Fine.”

Theta forces a smile and steps forward to hug him quickly. “Have a good time,” she murmurs to him, before planting a quick kiss on his cheek and scooting out of his arms before any of his family can look out of their windows and see them. She lifts a hand in a wave as she starts off back towards the citadel, bag slung over her shoulder. “See you soon!”

“Bye,” Koschei replies quietly as he watches her walk off. 

\--

It’s a half a day’s walk back, but Theta only makes it an hour before she hears footsteps behind her - quick ones - then her name called and she turns in shock to see Koschei jogging to her, bag on his back and panting hard. 

“Koschei!?” She exclaims when he reaches her and stops, doubling over a bit, hands on his knees. “What are you -”

He waves a hand at her as he pants for breath. “How  _ fast _ were you walking!? Rassilon…” 

Resisting the urge to laugh, Theta gives him a moment to catch his breath, before he stands upright again and she can look him in the eyes. She shakes her head. “What are you doing here? I told you -”

“Yeah - I was thinking about what you told me. That I should be spending the festival with the people I love.”

Theta’s face softens. “Koschei…”

“And then I realised that that’s you - and it’s not my fault my family won’t let you stay. They’re the ones who forced me to choose. And I choose you.”

For the second time that day, Theta bites hard on the inside of her cheek because she is absolutely  _ not _ going to cry, not here out on the road because she’d thought she was going to be spending the celebrations alone and she knew as much as she tried to deny it that she was going to  _ miss _ Koschei so much it hurt, and now he’s here and it turns out she doesn’t have to be alone at all.

She throws her arms around him and lets him kiss her like she hadn’t back outside his family home. His hands cup her face and his tongue strokes along her own and Theta feels Koschei’s silent acknowledgment of her relief, and the way he projects back the reassuring notion that he would never let her be alone again.

“Someone could see,” he mutters teasingly against her lips. 

“Don’t care,” she grins back, and lets him kiss her again before they reluctantly break apart and start to head back along the road. 

“So, what do you want to do for the holidays?”

She shoots him a sideways look. “First I want to get back to one of our rooms where I can show you how much I appreciate you being there with me.”

Koschei chuckles, squeezing her hand where it’s linked with his own. 

“ _ After  _ that. You still want to go camping? That might be fun.”

She shrugs. “We could. I want lots of food on the main day though - that’s the best part of the festival.”

He laughs. “I’m sure we can mange that.”

\--

They end up staying at the academy for the entirety of the break. Almost all of the other students have left to spend the celebrations with their respective families, and Theta and Koschei have the whole building where their dorms are in to themselves. She spends the entire time in his, no need to worry about being caught there overnight with nobody else around, moving all of her things in for the duration of the time. 

There’s celebrations and parades in the middle of the citadel, and they wander down there most days, trying samples of all the stall foods and dancing in the streets with the crowds. 

One evening there’s a wash of colours and paints, and Koschei lets Theta paint his face with an armful of little pots with bright colours she picks up. She turns him into a big spotted yellow cat, with dark lines round his eyes, long white whiskers and a pink nose, and she thinks it suits him - especially when he frowns in the little mirror she hands him, looking unimpressed. She wants all the colours on her own face, so Koschei paints a rainbow right across it, starting at one side of her forehead and covering her eye, nose and mouth to end at the other side of her jaw. She loves it. 

“I wish we could get clothes like this.” She comments as they wander back through the streets to Koschei’s room that night. 

“Rainbows?”

“Yeah! Like a stripe just like this across the top or something, wouldn’t that be brilliant? I hate these dreary things.” She plucks at her plain shirt and trousers, and Koschei chuckles. 

“And yet you complain about the ceremonial gowns just as much. Those are bright colours.”

“They’re all  _ red _ ,” she pulls a face. “Don’t other people get fed up with red? And the hats are stupid.”

“Headdresses. And I dunno,” he shrugs. “I’m quite partial to red myself.”

She rolls her eyes. “Of course you are.”

“What’s that supposed to mean!?” 

“Nothing,” She laughs, elbowing him when he reaches out to tickle her in the side. 

This part of the citadel is quieter, and Koschei glances around before snagging her hand and tugging her down a little dark side alley as she gives a gasp of surprise. 

“I’ll show you nothing,” he growls playfully as he pins her to the wall, and when he kisses her, she sees all the colours of the rainbow behind her eyelids. 

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you enjoyed! I haven't been posting much but I've been tapping away at a few things... if anyone here also read my 'Master of the House' story there mayy or may not be a little festive special on the way for that one...👀


End file.
